ARLINGTON, Va. — The leadership of FMI: The Food Industry Association took the occasion of the group’s annual Midwinter Executive Conference, held virtually for the first time last month because of COVID-19, to recognize the heroic efforts of member companies and their frontline workers during the pandemic, and to examine what the retail marketplace will look like after the crisis is finally over.

“As I look at the last 11 months of the industry’s evolution, I am in awe of what we have been able to do — not just at Albertsons Cos., but with and through all of you,” said Susan Morris, the food/drug combination store operator’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, and chair of the FMI Midwinter meeting. “Our collective team — no matter where you sit in the grocery chain — all of us kept our country’s communities fed when everyday life came to a standstill in nearly every community. …

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how much COVID changed our industry — or the speed at which it did. Our industry has changed and innovated faster and more this year than at any other time in modern history.”

The challenge of how to best understand and deal with the paradigm shift — one that involves, but extends well beyond, the rapid acceleration in the growth of omnichannel retailing; the foregrounding of safety, health and wellness; and the role that supermarkets are now being asked to play in immunizing Americans against COVID-19 — was the focal point of the event. The tenor of speakers and participants in panel discussions reflected the urgent need to reevaluate the long-held assumptions that have governed the brick-and-mortar grocery business.

“While I think it’s safe to say we haven’t traditionally been known as an industry that aggressively leans into change, we learned in the past several months that we actually can move relatively fast and furiously to protect our associates and the American consumer,” noted Leslie Sarasin, FMI’s president and chief executive officer. “Over the past few years, we have talked a lot about the ramped-up pace of change in our industry, but I would suggest that the pace of change instigated by COVID-19 made the changes we faced over the past decade look like they occurred in slow motion. Yes, many of the changes taking place in our marketplaces were already under way, but the pandemic accelerated them exponentially.”

Reinventing a complex business model, one that is reliant on multiple vendors and a sophisticated supply chain, in short order isn’t easy, but Sarasin said she is encouraged by the nimbleness and agility grocers have exhibited in the face of the pandemic. COVID-19 has resulted in a time of testing for the industry, she argued, but one that brings with it an opening for rejuvenation.

“In some ways, the pandemic turned back the food industry clock some 50 years to an age when folks cooked more, took a more ‘stock up’ approach to their grocery shopping and spent most of their food dollars at the supermarket,” said Sarasin.  “This flashback to days-gone-by provides the food retail industry with a unique opportunity to explore the things it could do differently this time around to better address customers’ need for convenience, affordability and sustainably produced food.

“It offers us some surprising prospects to retain shoppers’ loyalty through better helping them achieve their family’s health and well-being goals while providing them a feeling of comfort and family time. It’s not often we get a ‘do-over’ in life, but in many ways the pandemic has provided us this tremendous opportunity.”

Supermarket operators must seize the day, she asserted, a process that will be fostered, in part, by building closer connections and increased levels of trust with partners in the CPG sector.

“COVID-19 has challenged us, but it has also provided us with an opportunity to show our mettle, and we’ve done extraordinarily well, but to shape a better normal going forward, we must do even better,” she said. “We must not be afraid of accomplishing great things by seizing the opportunities that have been thrust upon us.

“We must not be afraid to achieve greatness by taking what we’ve done well and pushing to do it even better. We must not be afraid of greatness by shying away from asking ourselves the tough questions that make us uncomfortable, and then acting on those difficult answers. We simply must not be afraid of greatness if we wish to shape a better next normal.”