Grocery Revolution

As someone who has spent 30+ years living in the world that the authors describe, I found it a good outline of how the grocery business works - from a marketing point of view. The primary value of the book is in the breadth of its coverage, its readability and shortness. I have personally purchased at least a dozen copies to pass on as orientation material for my senior staff who may benefit from more of a big picture of the world they are working in, as well as specialized consultants for our firm that need to understand our milieu. None of these people would read the longer, more comprehensive tomes. So this book fills an urgent need for some of us practitioners.

This book is divided into two parts, one on the state of the industry, and one on consumer behavior. In the first part, the authors do an in-depth analysis of the changes in the retail industry (the move towards discounting, the responses of small grocery retailers to Wal-Mart-style companies, the changes undergoing the supply chain of suppliers to the grocery industry, etc). In the second part, they delve into the available research on consumer behavior, dealing with issues such as store layout and comfort (smells, colors, space, etc). A very solid book, very dense with information.

Excellent book! A must read for anyone in the consumer packaged goods industry! I wish the authors would write something about trade marketing! If you are in packaged goods, read this book!

This book covers the current grocery industry from beginning to end. It's ideal for those just entering the business i.e. brand managers, promotion managers, etc. Major retailers, wholesalers are examined in detail. Descriptions concerning popular formats, distribution channels, promotion techniques....you name it....it's here. An excellent read.

This is a very good book to bring the reader up to a high level of awareness on Fast Moving Consumer Goods and grocery in detail.The text builds in a logical way and provides a common sense understanding of how and why things work the way they do - primarily for the customer.The bibliography was valuable in confirming my PhD literature search.If there is a negative issue, the book is very much the party line of current retail thinking and does not venture into suggesting, for example that ECR is just another retailer tool to extract margin from manufacturers, or that a Porter value chain approach to optimising the chain based on consumer needs is a potentially better approach.This is a valuable book for Masters degree students without firsthand knowledge of grocrey retailing.