Viewpoints

Disruption is all about throwing things into confusion and disorder. For better or worse, that’s a familiar scenario to many in the food industry right now. According to a recent report by KPMG’s Consumer Markets practice, big companies are ha...

In a recent interview on WGN, Bob Mariano, the CEO of Roundy’s, was asked the question “What makes a great grocery store?” His response focused on customer care: “A great grocery store is made up of great people that care about their customers an...

Restaurants are the enemy of retail. That’s been the understanding ever since I began covering the food retail space a long time ago. The discussion was always about how food retailers need to steal share from foodservice and how supermarke...

...

First-time mothers represent a window of opportunity for natural retailers. If new moms can be reached while on the cusp of a new life stage (preferably while they are still pregnant), retailers could potentially keep them as loyal shoppers for a...

Many supermarket operators that I talk with are focused on looking at what their competitors are doing, which is a great way to learn and improve. The problem is who they are looking at. A supermarket’s competition these days includes just about ...

The food industry faces a number of challenges — no other market demands consideration of so many factors, from consumer demands to shifting trends, regional preferences or competitive offerings. For each of these elements, it is important to tra...

The worst thing about conventional wisdom is it’s often mistaken for absolute truth. Case in point is the assumption that supermarkets are stuck in the middle — between value and upscale retailers — and dying as a result. As this line of thinking...

Earlier this year, Lidl quietly launched a new promotional loyalty card within Scotland. Shoppers are encouraged to sign up for the new “Smarter Shopping” loyalty card to “Knock pounds off your big shop, again, and again, and again.” This effort ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about how growth is defined in various ways. A key facilitator of growth however should be quite clear — the Human Resources department. At present, the supermarket industry has several growth and expansion initiatives ...