Research tells us that nearly nine out of 10 food retailers already routinely take advantage of in-store marketing initiatives like product sampling (86 percent) or healthy recipes (86 percent) and good-for-you product displays (86 percent) (2017 Retailer Contributions to Health and Wellness). So why not take advantage of those same initiatives to encourage shoppers to participate in National Family Meals Month™ and share one more meal each week with their families?

A colleague of mine recently celebrated her birthday in a rather unusual manner. Instead of going to an upscale restaurant or taking in a performance, she had her birthday celebration at a grocery store. You see, this millennial colleague loves the new restaurant in her local grocery store and insisted on celebrating there with friends and family.

If I look back to just three years ago in our industry, two primary leadership teams held responsibility for operationalized health and wellness initiatives in food retail – pharmacy (59 percent) and nutrition (50 percent) leadership teams. Now we’re witnessing an entire category of managers for health and wellness leadership: 71 percent of these professionals are focused experts leading the decision-making process on how programs are established and operationalized.

According to the Power of Produce 2017, 54 percent of shoppers would like their produce department to offer an expanded assortment of locally-grown produce. Shoppers’ are zeroing-in on a mile radius from where they shop and use state lines to define what they constitute as local produce.