Retail Operations

When Will We See The Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

More than half of Americans remain very or extremely concerned about COVID-19, with even more concerned about emerging variants. Despite some easing of overall concern for shopping at the grocery store, shoppers continue to recognize far more ...

Managing Maturity, Goals, Roadblocks and Investments in the Future of Work

I’ve visited retailers all over the world, on virtually every continent except Antarctica. No matter the language or the terrain, retailers consistently take care of their customers and communities in the areas in which they operate. In the U.S., ...

Ongoing Conversations About Supply Chain Resilience

With challenges such as demand spikes, supply disruptions, labor shortages and a changing policy landscape, retailers had to adjusted accordingly – not only for the good of the company, but for the community. Here are some of the lessons learned and ...

The Potential Retail Repercussions of a Sluggish Vaccination Pace

As the Delta variant of COVID-19 rapidly spreads across the United States, governments in areas with low vaccination rates are grappling with their next steps toward preventing its spread and getting more people ...

Retail Stockpiling: Inventory Taxes, Just-in-Time and Beyond

In the grocery industry, inventory stockpiling can be an important hedge, but it can also be a costly one. Apart from production issues and supply chain bottlenecks that make securing large quantities of products more challenging for retailers, one ...

The New Climate of Food Retail

We have all witnessed large scale changes to the design and layout of our favorite grocery stores since the start of COVID-19. Most of the in-store dining experiences were dismantled, and the salad bars turned into grab-and-go stations for pre-made ...

Infographic: A Window into Who is Grocery Shopping Online

Over the coming weeks, we’ll dive into insights from 2021 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends and explore online grocery shopping via an infographic series. First, we look at who is grocery shopping online. The number of online grocery shoppers grew during ...

How Food Industry Leaders Learn Virtually

This past year and a half brought differences in all aspects of life, including education. But these differences have brought opportunities to become stronger. Our summer intern had his college curriculum go virtual, and there are benefits to this ...

Race Matters on the Food Aisle

FMI’s consumer trends paint the portrait of an American public emerging from the pandemic fog with a heightened sensitivity to social justice issues – especially as they apply to food. Whether that gets manifested in a commitment to waste less food, ...

Permission to Innovate? Consumer-Centric Private Brand Strategies

For the last several years, we have been hearing private brand acceptance is at an all-time high. And for only the second time in history, the first being the great recession, consumer trial of private brands hit record highs due to the COVID-19 ...

COVID-19 Shines a Spotlight on the Importance of Preserving Local Pharmacies

Despite their essential role in serving communities, pharmacies nationwide continue to be threatened by hidden “clawback” fees charged by drug middlemen that are both shuttering pharmacies and costing patients more at the pharmacy counter....

Charting a Path Forward for the Food Industry

As the food industry takes the important initial steps of learning from, building on, and moving beyond the novel challenges and circumstances COVID-19 has presented, FMI believes it is crucial that trading partners undertake a candid sharing of ...

Get To Know Our SPAR International 2021 Store Manager Award Finalist

As a new, local bypass was being constructed that would divert customers away from her Denmark-based store, manager and second-generation operator Malene Hansen was busy thinking of her own new route to ...

Get To Know Our Meijer 2021 Store Manager Award Finalist

If you do the math, John Spaulding has operated six different stores and worked at 10 Meijer locations throughout his 42-year career. It all adds up to a stellar reputation and a proven formula for store manager ...

Get To Know Our Harris Teeter 2021 Store Manager Award Finalist

Donna Maxwell’s secret to managerial success is staying grounded – literally. For one thing, she spends as much time as possible on the floor of her Harris Teeter store in California, Maryland. It’s there that she meets regularly with staff to make ...