September / October 2014

FMI has long supported U.S. food retailers through annual surveys of shopper behaviors and attitudes. In partnership with the Hartman Group, this year's U.S.

Market Basket, a family-owned chain of grocery stores in Louisiana and Texas, is known in the communities it serves as a high-service grocery store.

Retailers who don't yet understand the business case for collaboration throughout the supply chain might be wise to have a chat with an investment banker. The banker likely will talk about consolidation in the industry and the retail chains that have gone belly-up.How is that trend related to colla

It's no secret that employee turnover is a chronic problem for CPG retailers. According to the July 2013 Payscale report, "Companies with the Most & Least Loyal Employees," retail companies are among those with the highest turnover rate.

While retail sales figures are looking grim, mobile shopping just keeps gaining. During the past holiday season, mobile commerce was up 63 percent in the US, according to Business Insider. That's hardly a silver lining for today's retailers.

What is Roundy's Supermarkets Inc.? A one-company example of market bifurcation. A little piece of heaven for Chicago-area grocery shoppers. A breakup w

Facts Up Front helps educate shoppers on making informed choices at the shelf.

When you hear the words "men" and "shopping" in the same sentence, it's not unlikely that the image that immediately comes to mind is one of a bored man trailing his wife through the grocery store, or perhaps looking supremely uncomfortable and doing his best to not make eye contact with anyone wh

IGA Chairman Tom Haggai and I were comparing notes recently about how the retail industry has changed during the years.

Produce sales account for more than 30 percent of the supermarket dollar coming from all fresh departments (Nielsen Perishables Group Fresh Facts, 2013). This makes it more important than ever for retailers to ensure the safety of the produce they sell to their customers.

As the U.S. economy continues to improve, the rapid growth of premium products has followed suit, evidenced by the growing popularity of specialty gourmet retailers and the expansion of natural and organic shelf space across nearly every channel and retail banner.

Increasingly, food retailers want to be seen as a place to eat food, or at least buy it ready-to-eat, along with groceries for the home. All of the grocery stores, and 78 percent of the convenience stores, contacted in Retail Leader's exclusive survey offer some sort of food prepared on-site for