Category Archives: General

Cuhaci Peterson’s Senior Vice President of Design, Steven Duffy, was interviewed in the December 14th issue of Progressive Grocer, examining the topic of The Future of Retail: Unpacking Innovative Front End Strategies.

While acknowledging the importance of a seamless checkout process, Duffy cautions that “not all shoppers are looking to breeze in and out frictionlessly. While consumer appetites have grown to become less tolerant of waiting in line, some (more senior) shoppers seek the social interaction of the checkout process.

Grocers must also account for loss prevention and shrink technologies when enabling frictionless front ends. Optimized examples depend on format and are also commensurate with the retailers’ DNA. Are they a value operator, middle of the road or more of a premium brand?” Duffy added.

According to Duffy: “Savvy retailers seek to secure that last sale in line with well-curated impulse items, typically composed by a visual merchandiser. Grocers should consider using displays that illuminate and highlight specialty or must-have items, and products should also be a mix of seasonal or local offers.”

Getting shoppers to really notice the products featured in the front end can also give rise to opportunities for nontraditional items beyond the usual candy, snacks, magazines and soft drinks.
To read the entire article you may do so on the Progressive Grocer website by clicking here.

Store sizes are changing, remodeling activity is on the rise and selling space is under pressure from alternative uses.  This is the format-flexible world in which merchants must make optimal assortment decisions to satisfy shoppers and grow sales. Doing so requires understanding where store design is headed, the impact on selling space and how assortment optimization enables new opportunities.

Improve your understanding of these new dynamics by joining Steven Duffy, SVP of Design with the acclaimed architectural, engineering and design innovation firm Cuhaci Peterson, and Todd McCourtie, VP of Product Management Assortment and Space Planning, at SymphonyAI Retail CPG, for a revealing look at:

• Hot store design trends, remodeling innovation and what’s next for small formats.​
• How assortment optimization enables design flexibility and productivity improvement. ​
• The role of advanced technologies in understanding new item incrementality, transferable demand and store clustering opportunities.​
• Practical examples of how AI improves the speed and accuracy of merchants’ optimization efforts.

To download the on-demand recording, please click here.

Grocery executives once again convened to share their common goals and advocacy issues and consider the year ahead at the 2023 FMI – The Food Industry Association Midwinter Executive Conference. Here are nine highlights that stood out from the three-day event.

Doug Baker of FMI kicked off the education agenda for two days of “FMItech talks” by assembling a cross-section of tech-centric grocers and the entrepreneur’s driving innovation. The question posed after reflecting upon the closing keynote presentation titled, The Never Normal by Peter Hinssen, are the innovation efforts that grocers pursue today sufficient to keep them from falling victim to becoming either a dinosaur or a phoenix?

The FMItech Pitch Competition 

This brought forth six finalists – One that piqued our interest was Amoobi’s Chief Executive Officer, Olivier Delangre. This firm has developed a space optimization platform for in-store merchandising and planning. The platform provides many applications to evaluate and analyze customer behaviors, consider merchandising planning, and drive traffic and sales. The applications are data-driven and leverage store-mounted sensors to track customer behaviors.

FMItech Talk – A Fresh Approach to Driving True Digital Transformation

Suzanne Long, Chief Sustainability and Transformation Officer, Albertsons, and Matt Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer, Afresh considered different aspects surrounding fresh products, sustainably, and reducing food waste shrink to enhance consumer experience and grocers’ profitability. Fresh shrink has a considerable impact on store profitability. This application platform can track the flow of a product’s lifecycle through the supply chain. For example, an extra day or two extending a perishable product’s life significantly impacts consumption vs. entering the waste stream. Albertsons has targeted this as a priority.

FMItech Talks – Looking Backward While Moving Forward: Technology Practitioner Panel

This event addressed recent FMI technology research presented by Steve Markenson. The panel consisted of Kirk Ball, Executive Vice President, and Chief Information Officer, Giant Eagle; Charles McWeeney, Vice President of Technology, Innovation, and Strategy, Wakefern and Annette Franke, Vice President of Information Technology, Gorilla Glue. Discussions include how 70-80 percent of grocers are experimenting with improving efficiencies, consumer experience, and e-commerce tools, and now 60 percent with self-checkout. Also, how does automation improve the associate and consumer experience? All panelists agreed that labor is the single biggest challenge. When implementing technology, the value must be shown along its journey. Microfulfillment is considered an option in the tool chest as grocers grapple with the increasing demands of delivering upon customer need states.

Grocery Resiliency During Recession – Deborah Weinswig, Coresight Research

Deborah Weinswig delivered helpful research and a hopeful outlook for 2023, despite the most challenging headwinds experienced in decades. Coresight Research reviewed what worked in the last two recessions and the recessionary behaviors of consumers and retailers. Weinswig shared six actions for retailers to take now. Check out Coresight Research to review the extensive research they make publicly available.

Where Food and Technology Meet – Laurie Demeritt, Chief Executive Officer, The Hartman Group

This session was geared toward food geeks. And who does not love to learn more about what we eat and how it’s sourced? The Hartman Group delivered great insights into the industry and FMI. Laurie Demeritt shared some valuable data segmenting the 11 categories defining the future of food production. The higher degree of food innovation/reinvention and manipulation aligns with consumer skepticism. We recommend that you follow The Hartman Group research.

It’s safe to say that we’re living through an economic inflection point that affects our daily lives. Food and other current trends are influencing the future of grocery for the next three, five and even 10 years. Understanding these trends as “breadcrumbs” that influence food and grocery design will help in understanding how they shape the future and prepare us for change.

In the book “Trend Sociology v. 2.0” by Louise Byg Kongsholm, the author notes that change itself is at the heart of trends, and she reminds us that everyone fundamentally feels that change is good, even if it doesn’t affect them.

[Read more: “What Is the Biggest Growth Opportunity for Grocery Leaders?“]

Kongsholm explores the significance of six trend types that we’ll apply to grocery:

1. Types of society, which last for centuries.
2. Paradigms, which guide personal beliefs that last for decades.
3. Gigatrends, which are long trends that affect us for 10 to 30 years, radically changing our way of life and conditions. These trends also often have a global effect and usually contain elements of economy, politics and technology.
4. Megatrends, which are those medium-length trends lasting three to seven years, and are characterized by spirit, lifestyle and consumption.
5. Microtrends, which last six months to three years.
6. Fads, which have a longer shelf life by comparison.

Regardless of its timeframe, each trend has three affluential parts: society and culture, consumer trends/behaviors, and the industry’s response to delivering new products or services. Consider these when looking at trends, and you’ll notice a path forward becomes more apparent and a bit more demystified.

To read more, click here.