September/October 2016

For food retailers to provide their customers with the bank of information today's shoppers seek, they must be in lockstep communication with those who raised it and produced it.

Retailers see plenty of opportunity for small-format stores, particularly in densely populated urban environments, but winning with smaller stores means overcoming challenges that have proven daunting for even some of the most successful operators.

The idea of not having any choice in your phone carrier seems preposterous today. Those of us old enough all remember the days when Ma Bell dominated the telephone market, ending with the historical breakup of the legendary telephone monopoly.

How's private label trending? Depends on what category you examine. The average food category has seen a 5 percent increase in private label feature ad share compared to 2015.

Businesspeople have plenty of complaints about Washington and the way it operates—lack of fiscal responsibility, inability to compromise, and governing by crisis to name a few—but at their core these concerns boil down to one simple issue: unpredictability.

On one side, workers want more hours, and more predictable ones. On the other, demands for labor are shifting, in both the short and long term, requiring extra flexibility. Employers are being pressured to give workers more stable hours—but not too many of them.

The retail industry has never seen anything like Amazon.