What is the state of the food retail industry?

FMI's 71st annual The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report provides the food retail industry with important operational and financial benchmarks as well as insights into strategic and tactical decisions.

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A Look at 2019 and The Early Part of 2020

The latest Speaks report finds that in 2019 the food retail industry saw strong operational performance, which helped the industry face challenges in 2020. At the same time, outside forces including trade, credit/debit card interchange fees and health care costs impacted food retailers and kept profit margins steady.

Key Take-A-Ways

The groundwork laid in 2019 allowed the food retail industry to be nimble in 2020 when grocery stores faced unprecedented demand and the supply chain was dramatically disrupted.

Wise Investments

In 2019, 67% of retailers experimented with their ecommerce strategies and 75% added technologies to improve efficiencies. The capabilities supported responses during the crisis period.

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Ecommerce Advances

The vast majority of retailers have added more staff to handle online fulfillment, while some
allocated more associates for delivery of online orders.

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Technology Experiments

Food retailers of all sizes have been advancing their already growing technology investments for ecommerce, customer experience, and efficiency.

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Social Responsibly

Most food retailers now have quantifiable goals for energy use reduction, food waste reduction, and diversity in hiring.

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Supporting Associate

Food retailers focused on a range of benefits for associates — including higher compensation, bonuses, flextime, training/skills development, employee wellness programs, education programs and hiring/retention incentives.

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Meal Solutions

As shoppers increased their need for home meal solutions, food retailers pulled out all the stops to provide the widest range of options.

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The Food Retail Industry Speaks, What Are They Saying?

On-Demand Learning

This discussion shares insights from the latest Speaks report and is hosted by FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin along with:

Mark Baum, Chief Collaboration Officer & Senior Vice President, Industry Relations.
Jennifer Hatcher, Chief Public Policy Officer & Senior Vice President, Government Relations.
Dr. Hilary Thesmar, Chief Food & Product Safety Officer & Senior Vice President, Food Safety Programs.

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