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October 2009
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Managing talent - and the bottom line
Patrick Walsh, VP, Industry Collaboration, Education & Research, FMI
Economic tremors have affected retailers, wholesalers and those with whom they do business. Reductions in staff, hiring freezes and an assessment of benefits all play a part in managing talent and the bottom line. Unemployment woes still make headlines even as economists claim we are beginning to recover from recession. Furthermore, compensation and benefits currently account for more than 15 percent of net company sales. read more
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The 10 riskiest foods really aren't
Phil Lempert, Editor in Chief, Facts, Figures & the Future
With a fundamental interest in public advocacy, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) just reported on the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The 10 'featured' foods, many popular and healthy staples of the American diet, according to the report, accounted for nearly 40% of all foodborne illness outbreaks from 1990 to 2006. read more
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Omni-channel shoppers: high-tech, high-reward
There's a new breed of tech-savvy, high-spend shopper that will put retailers through their paces, but could well be worth the pursuit. The 'omni-channel' shopper prefers to access all retail channels - the physical store, catalog call center, Web and mobile - simultaneously. She might photograph a product's bar code at the shelf, in order to compare prices immediately via the Web, and connect to her social network for opinions. read more
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Supermarkets Will Choke on Price Cuts
In their quest to post decent comparable traffic and sales figures when people would rather spend less, some supermarkets are aggressively using broad-based discounts to prompt purchases. By proclaiming price cuts on thousands of items in their stores, these chains might just be slicing their own throats, says SupermarketGuru.com (SG).
The feedback they're hearing from shoppers goes like this: If stores could afford to lower prices as they are now, have they been plundering us for so many years? Why do we only get fair prices when retailers seem desperate for sales? Are they discounting as deeply as they can to help us out in a tough time?
Call them penny-pinching skeptics if you like, but all shoppers are doing is calling chains out on a dubious pricing strategy - one which we feel carries only short-term potential and long-term risk. read more
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Target senior shoppers before they gray
A high correlation between the food-beverage and general merchandise items that senior couples buy, and the ones that empty nest couples buy, suggests that people start to acquire these tastes as long as 10 to 15 years before they reach Medicare age. Of the 51 items that index 200 or above (twice the typical U.S. household consumption) among senior couples, virtually all index at 150 or above for empty nest couples, who could commonly be much closer to age 50 than 65. read more
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Brand chat reaches far
Here is more evidence why brands need to influence the influencers online today. More than nine out of 10 mothers (93.6%) regularly or occasionally seek the advice of others before buying a service or product. Nearly 10 out of 10 mothers (97.2%) advise others about products or services they have purchased.
So indicate results of a new white paper, All About Moms, issued by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of the National Retail Federation (NRF). read more
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Hispanics cope with their economic hurts
Hispanic households have suffered in some ways more than Whites or African-Americans in this harsh recession. On other measures, their economic pain has roughly equaled that of other population segments.
Hispanics, who came into the tough economy disadvantaged, were especially bedeviled by sub-prime mortgages. These high-interest rate loans sucked cash from their comparatively low monthly intake and hurt their confidence about being able to feed their families. read more
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The death of the foodie|Less hiring for Christmas|Milk prices hurt U.S. food independence
TLRTV is a 5-minute videocast designed specifically for the B2B Food World with a focus on Marketing Analysis, Issues & Trends. In this week's report...
The oldest food magazine in the U.S., Gourmet has folded. This past Monday, Conde Nast shuttered the magazine, although they intend to continue their web and television efforts. Foodies are dead, now it's official. The surprise many expressed about the shutdown of Gourmet magazine - the foodies' flagship - makes one think you could knock readers over with an arugula leaf. read more
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Cold cuts are hot, sales grow six percent
Judging by the way food retailers have expanded and upgraded their peg displays of refrigerated deli meats around the service deli counter, you'd think the cold cuts are a hot attraction. You'd be right for several reasons:
The prepackaged, UPC-coded meats offer a quicker self-service shopping experience and anchor a highly visible display area that makes sandwich and meal assembly simple and convenient. read more
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The Changing Face of Dairy Farming
Bill Rowekamp is a dairy farmer in South Eastern Minnesota. His family farm, built by his grandpa in 1914, milks 275 cows daily to produce about 25,000 pounds of milk - that's 95 pounds per cow per day. Rowekamp's milk is distributed in bottles throughout the country and used in Kemps products like cheese, ice cream, yogurt and sour cream. Rowekamp has been farming all his life.
How have your business practices changed over the last 10 years?
Agriculture is rapidly changing. read more
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Food, Nutrition & Science
We've just launched a brand new monthly newsletter: Food, Nutrition, & Science from The Lempert Report.
Our mission is to provide retailers and brands with the latest food news and the tools needed to better serve and empower our shoppers to make the best food choices possible. Each issue will contain interviews with leading researchers, nutritionists and trend setters. read more
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Facts, Figures, & the Future Newsletter
Click here for your FREE subscription to Facts, Figures, & the Future.
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