Technology

FMItech Pitches: Curated Innovation for the Food Industry

To help food retailers keep up with the latest food technology innovations, FMI and the Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART), held an online pitch competition. Through an expert set of judges, we identified the top six food technology ...

Digital Skills and the Future of the Food Industry

In the age of social media, smart phones, Wi-Fi, self-checkout lanes and all manner of AI software, it’s no surprise that technology is becoming an ever more critical fixture of food retail operations. Food retailers far and wide are beginning to ...

VIDEO: An Ecommerce Revolution in Food Retail

FMI Chief Collaboration Officer Mark Baum and Vice President, Industry Relations Doug Baker discuss the investments food retailers made to scale up their online shopping operations, such as click-and-collect and home delivery, as well as employee ...

Fresh is Front and Center for Growth, Investments

New research from FMI and Deloitte quantifies the level of importance of the fresh foods category to the food retail industry and highlights opportunities for new strategic investments to drive revenue growth, including boosting the in-store ...

Food Retail Meets Tech

From frictionless checkout to inventory controls to mobile payment apps, today’s food retail business owners face a lot of technological opportunities. In addition, thankfully, recent advancements in food technology—the branch of science dedicated ...

From Ticket Tearing to Screen Tapping: Foodservice in the Age of Ecommerce

According to The Power of Foodservice at Retail 2021 report, 89% of Baby Boomers prefer ordering from a person, while Millennials and Gen Z prefer using their smartphones or a kiosk. In fact, only 20% of Gen Z and 23% of Millennials prefer ordering ...

A Wild Industry Ride Still in Progress

Food industry leaders have surely felt a great deal of anxiety about the crazy ride they have been on for the past 18 months, which seems to not have an end in sight. Nevertheless, the entire food retailing industry has shown enormous courage in ...

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 ...

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 ...

Man Oh Man, Grocery Shopping Has Changed

For the 31 years I have been married, I have always been the one who did the grocery shopping. Every household divvies up life’s responsibilities differently, and in my home I’m the primary grocery shopper. Throughout the years, my wife’s friends ...

5 Key Steps to Becoming an AI-powered Organization

In this time of rapidly unfolding changes, accelerated and amplified during the pandemic, embracing artificial intelligence (AI) allows you to predict customers’ purchases while also empowering employees to use data to truly anticipate shopper needs....

Speaking from the Heart on Valentine’s Day

I am seizing this opportunity to issue this blog as my heartfelt Valentine’s Day card to the food industry, the community I have always admired and respected, but have come to appreciate and dare I say, love, in some new and more profound ways over ...

Headlines from FMI’s Midwinter Executive Conference

Last week’s FMI Midwinter Executive Conference certainly made headlines with thought-provoking educational sessions, featuring diverse perspectives among food industry icons; predictions about the future of grocery amidst a global pandemic; ...

Celebrating Supermarket Employee Day

On February 22, 2021, I will be celebrating the hard-working heroes of the supermarket by joining with the industry to proclaim it Supermarket Employee Day. The supermarket has long been acknowledged as the backbone of our communities, but its role ...

Lessons Learned and Insights from Albertsons Companies

Susan Morris, executive vice president and COO at Albertsons Companies, is the 2021 Midwinter Executive Conference chairperson and she has proven to be an admirable guide in helping us plan our first-ever virtual Midwinter experience. Susan’s ...