"Consumer awareness for natural and organic foods is so much stronger now that more retailers want to imitate what we do." (Mark Dixon, southwest region president for Whole Foods, staking a trendsetting claim. As quoted in a Dallas Morning News story on the opening of a new Lakewood branch of the grocery chain--appropriately filling an old Minyard space.)
Something called the Food Marketing Institute was scheduled to hold two events in Dallas beginning May 4: a "Future Connect leadership development conference" on May 4-6, followed by a "MARKETECHNICS® technology event" May 5-8. According to Tradeshow Week, the events were to take place at the Hyatt Regency and at the Dallas Convention Center, and "show organizers had estimated about 3,500 food retailers, wholesalers and suppliers would have attended the event." Alas, the FMI's president and CEO
