Technology

17 Companies Demonstrating Thought Leadership in Omnichannel Operations

During the resent Pulse 2017 event, co-hosted with Progressive Grocer and Retailer Leader, I had a chance to get to know some of the companies in the omnichannel arena that are helping food retailers address these pressing questions and more. Here ...

Advocacy: There’s An App for That

The FMI Advocacy app provides members and supporters with resources to successfully advocate to Congress, from Washington, D.C. or back in the home states and ...

Food Defense Superheroes: Suppliers and Food Processors to the Rescue

Arguably, there’s no greater hero to a company in the midst of a disaster or terrorist threat than those who are prepared to handle an emergency and shield your company’s assets from danger. ...

Drive Assurances and Efficiencies from Farm to Table

I joined attendees from various industries last week at the U.S. Chamber Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) and its new TecExec Series discussing the role of technology in agriculture, retail and the grocery industry....

12 New Technologies that May Impact the Grocery Industry

Our cameras snapped away as we captured innovations that could impact the food retail industry. Here are a dozen technologies we found—in no particular order—that you might find useful or relevant, including a few you might even like ...

Are You Ready For the Digital Food Shopper?

When was the last time you purchased a hardcover book? How about a magazine? How many of your adult children have a newspaper delivered to their home every day of the week? Did you do most of your holiday shopping this year in a department store or ...

Are Robots Replacing Grocery Industry Workers?

Some recent stories in the media have hypothesized that the grocery checkout clerk and deli associate will be replaced by robots and other emerging technologies. For those working in the food retail industry this might raise some alarms, but if we ...

Approaching the Future of Food, Fashionably

I’ve always posited that food should be more like fashion. Similar to the latest trends in lapels and color palettes, consumers’ palates are attuned to what’s hot in the food world. Consumers may be willing to experiment with new foods and flavors, ...

Tech Opportunities for Food Retail on Display at CES

As a group of food retailing industry executives who took advantage of an FMI-organized trip to International CES 2017 realized, there is no way around it: Consumers are quite happily and increasingly ...

The Connected Consumer Was Everywhere at International CES

The whole world is connected. And, if it isn’t yet, it will be. The same goes for the food retailing industry. That is what representatives from the industry’s leading companies discovered when they joined an FMI-organized Jan. 5-8 visit to ...

Are You A Digitally Enabled and Engaged Retailer?

We want answers to those questions to better enable our members, which is why FMI is embarking on a multidimensional, multi-year digital shopper and digitally enabled retailing journey with Nielsen. We’ll explore the business imperatives that are ...

Embracing a New Wave of Information Technology

The legislative achievements last week on GMO have been a win for the value chain in giving food makers and sellers the option to disclose information in a flexible manner, so it was disconcerting that the debate on GMO included accusations that the ...

Your Own Personal Tech Help Desk at FMI Connect

Like every other industry sector, technology has transformed the food retail business over the last 20 to 30 years, and will continue to do so, probably forever. Just as your customers are constantly adopting the latest electronic gadgets, you too ...

Graduating Students Take the Food Industry into the Future

Students delivered their capstone presentations in March, and two teams were selected to deliver again at the mid-April Western Association of Food Chains (WAFC) conference in Honolulu, HI. All of the topics demonstrated the level of innovation and ...

How Does Omnichannel Fit into Your Business?

In the second part of our series, I spoke with Chris Baker, Oliver Wyman Partner and North America Retail Practice Co-leader, and Jacqui Martinez, Oliver Wyman Retail Practice Partner, on the emergence of “click-and-collect” and omnichannel retail ...