Technology

The 2020 Strategic Playbook For The Food Industry

FMI and Oliver Wyman’s annual journal publication Boardroom provides a starting point. In fact, volume 5 of the journal is a strategic playbook for the emerging issues a food retailer or supplier should be discussing in their boardrooms—that’s how ...

A Conversation with Oscar Gonzalez, Northgate Gonzalez Market

Oscar Gonzalez, co-president and COO of Northgate Gonzalez Market, is chairman of FMI's 2020 Midwinter Executive Conference and a true leader when it comes to creating genuine experiences that hold true to his company’s personality. Under Oscar’s ...

What’s In A Brand?

Life is full of circumstances and situations that prompt us to evaluate our personal brand and make necessary changes, adapting to a new position or setting by shifting our brand. Sometimes these involve small adjustments and sometimes we must ...

Technologies Building Smart Supermarkets

January is technology season with a series of back-to-back events focused on the latest gadgets and gizmos. While reading about new technologies, it’s easy to begin to wonder how they will apply to your shoppers and your business model. Here are ...

FMI’s 2019 Year in Review

There is something particularly noble about accomplishments that have so many ups and downs and surprise developments that they require a special brand of perseverance. Finishing the fight requires overcoming the nagging drag of self-doubt when the ...

Exploring AI-Voice Assistants and Application in Grocery

Many in the industry can’t hear it yet, but artificial intelligence voice assistances (AI-voice) – on a home-based smart speaker, smartphone or a car dashboard – are on their way to the grocery industry. As they arrive, it will not only accelerate ...

New Jobs in The Grocery Industry

The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report asked food retailers to share their plans for labor investments over the next two years. Here are some of the new jobs you can expect to see in the grocery ...

How Grocers Are Investing in Technology

The rapid evolution and implementation of technology in food retail can boost performance on the operational side and enhance engagement on the customer-facing front, not to mention the growing role of ecommerce. Let’s look at some of the ways that ...

Photo Friday: Grocers Visit MIT

Our Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, for its fall ...

Speaks 2019: How Can You Benefit?

Based on response to the 2019 The Food Retailing Industry Speaks survey, food retailers are moving forward with proactive strategies to navigate the barriers and embrace new opportunities. As part of this process, food retailers are learning how to ...

Observations from Groceryshop—Through an FMI Lens

In his June address to an audience of 6,000 at their annual associates and shareholders celebration, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc. shared, “If I oversimplify our ability to thrive in the future, it comes down to one thing: our ...

Technology’s Opportunity to Accelerate Fresh Foods

Technology can be a game changer in fresh foods because it brings new solutions to longstanding problems. These include challenges related to inventory, waste, freshness, and food safety. However, the technology story will play out differently in ...

Loyalty Programs: Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

Thirty years later shoppers are still sharing data with their grocery store, privacy is still a concern, and there is a limit to the willingness of shoppers to share personal information for specific benefits. According to the 2019 U.S. Grocery ...

Are You Operationally Ready for the Omnishopper?

A major challenge facing grocery operations professionals today is the sheer number of technologies vying for their attention. Sorting hype from reality can feel like a full-time job. We've identified seven overarching imperatives that focuses on ...

Benchmarking Your Online Grocery Shopping Experience

When food retailers want to see how their in-store experience compares to their competitor down the street, they sometimes call on “mystery shoppers.” Taking the lead from our members, FMI has teamed up with FitForCommerce, a boutique consultancy ...