Longtime grocery industry leader Bill Bishop passes away

Willard “Bill” Bishop, a leader in grocery industry insights and analytics for decades, passed away on March 25 at age 80, his family announced Monday. He had retired as Chief Architect of his company Brick Meets Click on March 1, due to “serious, ongoing health challenges.”

Bishop's experience in the food retail business “reaches from the earliest introduction of the UPC code to the online grocery revolution that was fast-tracked due to the COVID pandemic,” his family noted in their announcement.

Early in his career, Bishop served as vice president of research at the Supermarket Institute, which later became the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). In 1976, he founded Chicago-based Willard Bishop Consulting and led major studies on new store formats, pricing strategy, direct-store delivery and loyalty marketing. He also helped form the supermarket-focused Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council (CCRRC) and convenience retail-focused NACS/CCRRC.

After leading Willard Bishop Consulting for almost four decades, Bishop turned to take on the industry's newest challenge — how digital technology was changing the grocery industry — with Brick Meets Click, the firm he co-founded in 2011 with his son Steve Bishop and led as Chief Architect until his recent retirement. “To that mission, he brought an unmatched depth of experience in the nuts and bolts of grocery retail operations and how grocery retailers think,” the family said.

Related:Brick Meets Click’s Bill Bishop retires due to health concerns

Under Bishop’s guidance — and through the direction of his children, Cindy Christian, Steve Bishop and David Bishop —Brick Meets Click earned a strong and highly respected reputation for analyzing the forces afoot in food and grocery retailing and, through services and thought leadership, provided guidance to help industry stakeholders navigate the changing food retail ecosystem and leverage disruptive business innovations, from online grocery, big data and connecting digitally with customers to new formats and hard discounters.

In addition to his own companies, Bishop was inducted into the Private Label Hall of Fame in September 2020 in recognition of his contributions to the growth of the industry. He also has served on the boards of Western grocer Raley’s and The Food Institute. His education includes a PhD in agricultural economics and marketing from Cornell University, and he has taught marketing channels at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Bishop was also a regular contributor to Supermarket News, which included writing a column and participating in podcasts and webinars with the brand.

Related:The real threat of Amazon Fresh lies in delivery, says Brick Meets Click’s Bill Bishop

Bill Bishop was born Sept. 9, 1941, in Orange, N.J., to Willard and Virginia Bishop. He grew up in South Orange, N.J., graduated from Columbia High School in 1959, and completed his undergrad studies at the University of Maine – Orono where he met his future wife, Cathy. He earned an MS in Agricultural Economics in 1965 from the University of Maine – Orono and a PhD from Cornell University in 1968. He then entered the Army, rising to the rank of Captain, and served as assistant to General Bunker in the Pentagon’s office of the Army Materiel Command. 

In 1970, Bill and family moved to the Chicago area where he worked as VP of Research at the Supermarket Institute for six years. In 1971, the family moved to Barrington, Ill., and called the community home for more than 50 years.  

Bishop is survived by his wife of 58 years, Catherine; children, Cindy (Joe) Christian of Tucson, Ariz., Steve (Anila) Bishop of Scottsdale, Ariz., and David (Julia) Bishop of Barrington, Ill.; grandchildren, Anna and Sean Christian, and Grace and Emma Bishop; and brothers, Richard Bishop of Portland, Ore., and Philip (Sheryl) Bishop, of Kinnelon, N.J. 

“Bill was always incredibly generous with his time both personally and professionally. He was happy to lend an ear and offer thoughts on how to move forward or see things from a different perspective,” the Bishop family wrote in his obituary. “He also prioritized engaging with people and organizations where he saw an opportunity to make a difference —whether it be participating in many church activities, coordinating weekly neighborhood food drives for the local food pantry, or writing letters to politicians and companies —including several of the airlines who shall not be named here — about what they could do better.”

A private Celebration of Life service is being planned for mid-May in Barrington. The family is also working on coordinating a separate online memorial event to allow people from across the grocery industry who developed relationships with Bill to gather and honor him. The date and details will follow later.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to: F.I.S.H. Food Pantry, Carpentersville, Ill. at  www.fish-food-pantry.org.