We live in an age of personalization. A shopper looking for Keto meal options and a shopper seeking blood pressure medicine both have the same end goal—a personalized grocery shopping experience that gets them the products they need and want. For years, food retailers have satisfied both shoppers by offering different services—nutrition counseling and pharmacy. Nowadays, simply having both services in your store isn’t enough.

The Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) invited FMI to a meeting to develop data-driven goals for the Healthy People 2030 initiative, a national effort that sets objectives to improve the health and well-being of all people in the United States. This meeting brought together food safety professionals to support these Healthy People objectives in order to reduce infections caused by major foodborne pathogens, reduce severe allergic reactions and increase the proportion of consumers who follow key food safety practices.

Independent food retailers toured AJ’s Fine Foods, owned by FMI Board of Director Member Trey Basha, during the Midwinter Executive Conference in Phoenix.

FMI recently teamed up with the USC Marshall School of Business on The Grocery Shopping Habits of Gen Z and Millennials. We started our research by asking the source with focus group interviews of Gen Z and millennial grocery shoppers. These discussions informed a larger survey and sought to better understand these age groups’ online shopping perceptions, attitudes and behaviors and use of technology during food and grocery shopping. What we found was surprising.