DALLAS, Oct. 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grocery leaders trust their fresh departments to perform, even as the pressure to run them keeps building. According to the Logile 2026 State of Fresh Grocery Operations Industry Report, 89% of retail decision-makers call their fresh operations successful. At the same time, 84% say fresh is challenging to manage, 76% say consistency across locations is difficult to maintain and 74% struggle to clearly see what is happening across their own fresh departments.

Logile, Inc., a global leader in AI-powered Connected Workforce solutions, surveyed 200 U.S. senior decision-makers at grocery and multi-location retail organizations in May 2026, using the third-party survey platform CensusWide. Respondents worked in store operations, fresh and perishable categories, inventory, supply chain, labor planning and food safety and compliance. The survey measured how retail leaders manage their fresh operations, where they invest in technology and where the gap between performance and perception runs widest.

Key findings from the Logile 2026 State of Fresh Grocery Operations Industry Report:

• 89% of retail decision-makers rate their fresh operations as successful, while just 2% call them unsuccessful.
• 84% say managing fresh operations is challenging, 76% say consistency across locations is hard to maintain and 74% admit they can’t clearly see what’s happening across their own fresh departments.
• Large retailers with 5,000 or more employees report more difficulty than mid-size peers on every measure, including 41% who call managing fresh “very challenging,” nearly double the 21% at mid-size organizations.
• 82% agree fresh departments play a major role in how customers perceive their stores, echoing separate Logile research showing 91% of shoppers judge a grocery store by its fresh departments.
• 82% agree shrink and waste reduction is a growing business priority, rising to 90% among the largest retailers.
• 91% say investing in fresh operational technology is important, and AI-driven decision support and improved labor planning tie as the most-requested capabilities at 23% each.
• All of the 200 decision-makers surveyed indicated there is room for improvement in their fresh operations.
  
  

The findings point to an operational visibility gap beneath otherwise strong confidence in fresh. The economics of fresh operations span recipes, labor standards, schedules, inventory, production and shrink, often across separate systems. That fragmentation makes it difficult to see the complete economics of an item or understand how one operational decision affects another. Large retailers were more likely than mid-size peers to call themselves very successful, yet they also reported more difficulty on every measure the survey tracked.

“Confidence in fresh operations doesn’t mean visibility into it,” said Purna Mishra, founder and CEO of Logile. “Retailers are proud of what their teams accomplish every day, and they should be. But fresh is the result of dozens of connected decisions across demand, production, labor, inventory, waste and execution. When those decisions live in different places, even strong operators can struggle to see the complete picture. Connecting them around one view of demand is where the next opportunity lies.”

The findings follow Logile's companion consumer study, the Logile 2026 State of Fresh Grocery Shopping Report, which found 91% of shoppers judge a grocery store by its fresh departments. The two reports point to the same conclusion from opposite sides of the counter: fresh departments carry outsized weight in how a store performs, and closing the visibility gap increasingly depends on connecting forecasting, labor and production data through a unified platform.

For fresh operations leaders, the takeaway is straightforward. The confidence retailers have in fresh isn’t the problem. The blind spots underneath it are, and they widen as store counts grow.

Frequently asked questions about fresh operations in grocery retail:
What is fresh operations management in grocery retail?
Fresh operations management is how a grocery or multi-location retailer runs its perishable and ultra-perishable departments, including produce, meat, seafood, deli, bakery and prepared foods, across demand forecasting, in-store production planning, labor scheduling, food safety and shrink control. It’s becoming a bigger priority as margins tighten: a new Logile survey found 91% of retail decision-makers call investing in fresh technology important, and 84% call managing fresh challenging.

Why do fresh departments matter to a grocery store?
Fresh departments shape how shoppers judge a store more than any other section. In Logile’s survey of retail decision-makers, 82% said fresh plays a major role in customer perception, echoing separate Logile consumer research that found 91% of shoppers judge a grocery store by the quality of its fresh departments.

Why are fresh department margins so hard to control?
Fresh economics are scattered across systems. Recipes, labor standards, schedules, inventory and shrink reports each live somewhere different, so no single view shows what an item really costs to produce. Nearly three in four retail decision-makers, 74%, told Logile their organization struggles to see across its own fresh departments.

Why are fresh operations harder to manage at large retailers?
More locations mean more variation to control and more labor to coordinate. Logile’s survey found large retailers with 5,000 or more employees reported more difficulty than mid-size peers on every measure, including 41% who called managing fresh “very challenging,” double the 21% at mid-size organizations.

What technology do retailers want most for fresh operations?
AI-driven decision support and improved labor planning top the list, tied at 23% each in Logile’s survey, followed by shrink and waste reduction at 21% and compliance and food safety management at 20%. Together they point to demand for one connected platform rather than separate point tools.

For full results and additional insights, view the Logile 2026 State of Fresh Grocery Operations Industry Report.

About Logile
Logile helps retailers run great stores with confidence. As a global leader in AI-powered Connected Workforce solutions, Logile cuts through operational chaos with one platform and one plan to keep every shift, shelf and store in sync. A retail AI trailblazer founded in 2005, Logile makes demand-driven operations real and repeatable by unifying forecasting, labor scheduling, task execution, inventory, fresh item management and food safety into a single platform. The result: less waste, labor aligned to real demand, stronger execution and consistently better-performing stores. Learn more at logile.com.

Media Contact
Idea Grove, on behalf of Logile
logile@ideagrove.com