<p>By: Leslie G. Sarasin, President and CEO, FMI</p><p><img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/family-meals/family-meal.tmb-large-350-.jpg?Culture=en&sfvrsn=adffad40_1" style="margin-bottom:10px;float:right;margin-left:10px;" alt="National Family Meals Month" class="-align-right" sf-size="2136675" />During his Liberation Day tariff speech this week, President Trump <a href="https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/trump-humorously-calls-word-groceries-old-fashioned-and-beautifulvideo-article-151338102" target="_blank">referred</a> to groceries as "an old-fashioned" yet "beautiful term." While there has been no shortage of online reactions to the President’s comments and policies from across the political spectrum, there is one thing I wholeheartedly agree with him on — groceries are beautiful. </p><p>In our highly polarized world, food — and specifically the family meals we prepare at home from food purchased at the grocery store — is one of the few things we can count on to bring us all together. From families gathering around the dinner table to catch up after work and school to holiday meal celebrations that bring together multiple generations of family and friends, groceries are at the heart of so many of the most beautiful moments of our lives.</p><p>Groceries also have the power to heal, nourish, comfort, and energize. From the comfort of a hot cup of tea on a rainy day to the generosity of a homemade dish donated to a community bake sale, the sense of pride from preparing a plate for a potluck dinner party to the joy of a parent teaching a child how to make a cherished family recipe, there truly is beauty in the groceries we purchase and transform into nutritious, delicious, nostalgic dishes.</p><p>For all these reasons, while the food industry appreciates and supports the Trump administration’s goals to protect American jobs, boost our manufacturing sector and lower food prices, we encourage the President to utilize grocers, and the food industry as a whole, to better understand how tariffs could actually increase prices, squeeze household budgets that are already stretched thin, and make it harder for the entire American food industry, including grocers and food suppliers who operate on thin margins (1.6% and 7.5%, respectively), to compete. </p><p>Protecting the interests of the grocers who work tirelessly to serve our communities and keep families fed is essential. While some may not consider the term groceries as old-fashioned as the President suggests, the word does date back hundreds of years. </p><p>The term "grocer" has roots in medieval Latin and was adopted from the old French word "grosserie," which referred to someone who sold goods by "the gross." The earliest use in English can be traced to 1419 and the Company of Grossers of London, a medieval guild that oversaw the weights, measures, and purity of spices. </p><p>Maintaining the centuries-old trust between grocers and shoppers is more crucial now than ever, especially given the inflationary fatigue that consumers continue to experience. </p><p>We already know that consumers are worried about how tariffs will impact their grocery bills. According to FMI’s March Grocery Shopper Snapshot <a href="https://www.fmi.org/blog/view/fmi-blog/2025/03/07/grocery-shopper-snapshot–how-are-consumers-feeling">survey</a>, 54% of grocery shoppers cited increased tariffs on imported food as their biggest concern related to the price of groceries, a five-percentage point increase from January. </p><p>Given how intricately linked our food system is with global markets, it is too soon to tell exactly what impact tariffs will have on the price of food on grocery store shelves. As it stands now, food and agricultural products operating under the USMCA can continue to be imported from Canada and Mexico tariff-free, which should help curb inflation. However, some goods like bananas and mangoes are unable to be produced in North America due to improper growing conditions. Additionally, high tariffs on food, pharmaceuticals, and personal care items from China and the EU still have the capacity to severely disrupt supply chains and increase prices. </p><p>As we all navigate this new, complicated policy and economic environment, the entire food industry — and grocers in particular — remain committed to being a source of information for the Trump administration about consumer sentiment regarding tariffs and other issues impacting the economy and grocery prices. </p>
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