A lot has been made of the role private-label products played during the darkest days of the recession. The numbers support the idea. Sales data from the Nielsen Co. show private-label sales grew 2.5% between February 2009 and February 2010, while...

Last week was a prolific period for mulling the use of tracking technologies. The New York Times reported on a new city study about Manhattan traffic patterns based on information from GPS devices in taxis. The findings: Wednesdays are the most...

Getting the best deals seems to be built into our DNA...

Retail channels are often viewed in a horse-race fashion: Who's ahead and who's behind. That traditional approach still makes sense, but there are now additional ways to view these channels that provide new insights into how fast things are...

Food retailers battling in this recession often opted to “invest in price,” which means they cut prices to stay competitive and keep market share...

In writing this week's news article on the food deserts issue, I thought about how it compares to the health care debate. For one thing, both involve large numbers of people lacking a basic service...

In recent weeks, Food Marketing Institute's Leslie Sarasin has spent a lot of time talking to a White House chef, and it has nothing to do with ordering takeout...

Almost exactly two years after former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer resigned amid a sex scandal, there are calls for his successor, Gov. David Paterson, to do the same. First after accusations he tried to coerce a domestic violence victim to drop...

We've heard it said that food safety is not a competitive issue. That means a retailer should never criticize the food safety efforts of a rival, because that may cast a pall over all other players...

Ten years from now, a shopper will walk into one of your stores — maybe not one of your traditional cookie-cutter supermarkets, but a small neighborhood store that had been designed and merchandised for a particular demographic niche...