What Does the Future Hold for your Stores?

By: Laurie Gethin, Director of Education, Food Marketing Institute 

The food retail landscape is changing and responding to a new wave of shopping patterns.  Many Millennials are living in the city – and some empty nesters are moving there from the suburbs – resulting in a movement to smaller stores in urban areas.  More shoppers are prioritizing health and wellness and are looking to supermarkets to meet their needs.  Retailers are working hard to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

FMI’s Energy & Store Development Conference is not shying away from change.  In fact, we’ve dedicated an entire morning to future-focused sessions. We want to push your creative limits and encourage you to think outside of the box. Attend these three sessions to learn how changing shopper trends may affect the way you design, build and equip your stores. 

Thinking Ahead of the Curve – All too often, global futurist and innovation champion Robert Tucker observes, we are too busy managing today’s business, and don’t manage the future effectively.  During this session, Robert will teach attendees five ways to assault their assumptions, in order to challenge the status quo and unleash innovation.

Channeling Your Inner Fortune Teller to be on the Leading Edge of Grocery Trends - Innovation-minded grocery designers from BRR Architecture believe that grocery chains must become better at identifying and preparing for the shopping trends that will shape the physical grocery store environment in the not-so-distant future. Looking to other industries for inspiration, they will identify recurring trends and provide examples of how grocery retailers can adapt their store design strategy and buildings to meet shopper’s changing needs.

A Provocative Look at the Future of Refrigeration and Store Design - New technologies have the potential to cause whole scale changes in our fundamental approach to refrigeration and store design. Shopping habits of millennials, a shortage of qualified service technicians, rising costs, resource constraints, and environmental demands put further pressure on us to change. In this session, presenters from Target Corporation and KW Refrigerant Management Strategy LLC will challenge preconceived notions about refrigeration technology as well as environmental best practices. 

The future is challenging—and exciting! Join us at the 2015 Energy & Store Development Conference on September 27-30 in San Deigo, CA and see how your stores measure up. Follow the conversation online with #FMIEnergySD.