Hy-Vee’s first in-store bakery was installed in 1957, and the retailer has never looked back. Every new store since then has sported a bakery. All those decades of success, however, can’t shield any department from scrutiny. This eight-sta...

Last month we surveyed our SupermarketGuru.com Consumer Panel about retailers using hidden cameras to track their behaviors and eye movements as they decided which products to select from store shelves. I was not surprised to find that alm...

The saying in Las Vegas is what happens there, stays there, but that was hardly the point of the GS1 Connect conference that took place this month at the Aria Resort & Casino just off the famed Vegas strip. At the conference, the message about...

The old, stereotyped image of trading partner relations is that retailers hold most of the cards and manufacturers, especially smaller ones, face considerable costs and other challenges. You can argue about whether this picture ever realis...

We all know alternative retail channels are the arch-enemies of supermarket Center Store sales, right? But which of these types of retailers are the most dangerous competitors? We’ve asked that question of retailers annually as part of our...

Last week’s failed recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker put the spotlight once again on the challenges created by the costs of legacy pension plans, an issue that has surfaced over and over around the country in relation to both private-secto...

Smartphones are miraculous for my generation. For my 5-year-old daughter’s generation, while these devices may be “awesome,” they are hardly astounding. To them, digital is just part of the landscape and has seemingly always been here. ...

Despite the flurry of consumer interest in farmers’ markets, these markets don’t pose a threat to produce departments. Not a big one, anyway. As previously reported by SN, a recent survey for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation found that 71% of s...

Supermarkets are willing to take occasional risks, but they much prefer if other retailers have already charted good paths to follow. This is an industry that isn’t shy about emulating success. That fact should help draw attention to a new...

I would suggest it is time to rethink the way we look at food retailing. We are experiencing a huge paradigm shift — everything from the way we attract shoppers, to the foods they purchase (and why) to where they purchase these foods. Our ...