Author: Al McClain

What Americans REALLY Eat

What Americans believe they should eat, and what they actually eat, often have little in common. In a recent study by Yankelovich, summarized in an article on foodprocessing.com, 82 percent of responding consumers say they are directly responsible for their health and 87 percent think individuals are responsible for the obesity epidemic. Yet, 72 percent say if food doesn’t taste good they won’t eat it, no matter how healthy and nutritious it is. What eating trends are restaurants, food retailers, and suppliers failing to fully leverage?

Grocery Store Brands: Growth, Opportunities, and Issues

There was a lot of buzz at the Food Marketing Institute convention this week around private label, which some prefer to refer to as store brands. Just about everyone seems to agree that PL is hot, but there is some disagreement as to what that means and what to do about it. What would you advise supermarkets and other types of retailers on how to leverage their results in this area?

Privacy: How Quaint

In the “good old days,” consumer privacy issues were relegated to things like cutting up old credit cards, destroying receipts, and hoping the waiter didn’t write down your credit card number. We soon progressed to the “do not call” list, spam filters, and junk mail blacklists. What do you consider as “best practices” for tracking consumers online?

Technology and Consumers – Reality vs. Promise

Transactions that were once full service are now self-service: banking, airline check in, retail check out, customer service on the phone, etc. But are consumers looking for tech solutions? Most likely they want things that make their lives easier and couldn’t care less how the technology works, just that it does work. How do we in the retailing industry do a better job of integrating our myriad of systems and offerings so that they don’t operate as individual products, but actually improve the end result for the consumer?

What Makes an Independent Grocer Special?

Independent retailers have a very tough time beating mega-retailers on price, but they are more nimble and can use that in various ways to their advantage. How to draw consumers to independent stores was the theme of a “RetailWire Live” workshop at the recent National Grocers Association (NGA) convention in Las Vegas. BrainTrust members Tom McGoldrick, Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, Jamie Tenser and David Zahn all weighed in with ideas that “small guys” should be thinking about. What are your suggestions for independents looking to become special in the minds of consumers?

Stop, Thief!

Want an easy way to dramatically grow your profits at retail? It’s as simple as reducing your shrink, according to Larry Miller, president of Trax Retail Solutions, who gave a presentation on the subject at the recent NGA (National Grocers Association) convention. For many retailers, profit margins are thin enough that controlling shrink can be the difference between being in the black or in the red. What do you see as the keys to reducing shrink?

Decline in Crop Diversity – Big Problem for Everyone?

According to an article in the International Herald Tribune, crop diversity is declining, and we all have a lot to worry about. Last year, a UN treaty required countries to preserve existing crops and created an international system for sharing crops and plant genes, but it could be a case of “too little, too late.” If declining crop diversity is a side effect of modern farming and production methods, what can be done to swing the pendulum back in the other direction?

Subject: TRUST

According to a Gallup Poll cited in the 6-12-05 New York Times Magazine, only eight percent of Americans trust big business a great deal. Could it be that for all the efforts to introduce new products, satisfy consumers, lower labor costs, satisfy employees, be more efficient, and so on, that we’re overlooking trust as something we need to work on? Are there retailers in business today that are trusted by consumers?

Impressions: Retail Tech Developments

When a non-tech writer visits a technology show, it can be a bit daunting trying to sort out what everyone’s doing, and what’s really “new and different.” Under the assumption that this may be a problem for many retailing industry execs, Al McClain thought he’d share a few quick observations as to what struck him this year. What do you see as the most compelling new retail technology this year?