January 6, 2009

PHIL LEMPERT is The Supermarket Guru ®

Television & Radio News Reporter/ Newspaper Columnist/ Author/ Consumerologist/ Food Marketing Expert

Phil Lempert can predict the future —and then help businesses and consumers understand it.   For more than 25 years, Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies worldwide.   Known as The Supermarket Guru ® , Lempert is a distinguished author and speaker who alerts customers and business leaders to impending corporate and consumer trends, and empowers them to make educated purchasing and marketing decisions.

As one of America’s leading consumer trend-watchers and analysts, Phil Lempert is recognized on television, radio and in print. He is the food trends editor and correspondent for NBC News’ Today show, where he reports on consumer trends, food safety and money-saving tips, as well as showcases new products. He makes monthly appearances on ABC’s The View , and has appeared numerous times on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, CNN, CNBC, Discovery Health and MSNBC, as well as on local television morning and news programs throughout the country.

Phil Lempert was one of the pioneers of the new information media, founding SupermarketGuru.com in 1994.   The website is now one of the leading food and health resources on the Internet, visited by more than 9 million people each year.   SupermarketGuru.com offers thorough food ratings, analyzes trends in food marketing and retail, and features health advice, unique recipes, nutrition analysis, allergy alerts and many other resources to help consumers understand their food, health, lifestyle and shopping options.

Lempert is a monthly columnist for Progressive Grocer magazine (writing the “Consumer Insight” column)and Gourmet Retailer magazine, and he blogs twice a week for iVillage.com and Today.MSNBC.com.   He has been profiled and interviewed by USA Today , The New York Times , The Christian Science Monitor , The Wall Street Journal , Forbes , Newsweek and Ad Age , and is interviewed by hundreds of publications each year.

Phil is the founder and editor of several monthly e-publications targeted to consumers and businesses: “ Xtreme Retail 23 ,” “ Facts, Figures & the Future ,” “Food Nutrition and Science” and “Coffee Chat News.”     He also publishes a weekly e-newsletter from SupermarketGuru.com.   To sign up for any newsletters, visit the “Your Path to Consumer Enlightenment” section of SupermarketGuru.com.

For 13 years, Lempert has hosted a weekly, live call-in radio show, Before You Bite ® with Phil Lempert , which most recently aired on Lime Radio (previously part of Sirius) .   Podcasts of the program, which features discussions of the latest news in health, sustainability and food trends, are currently available on Lime.com.

Phil is also proud to be working with the Global Food & Nutrition Practice of Ketchum, Inc., as a frequent speaker and thought leader, offering his perspective on the food industry to key accounts and new business prospects.   

In 2007, Lempert founded Phil’s Supermarket, the first supermarket to exist in the virtual world of Second Life.   Phil’s Supermarket features interactive product demonstrations, consumer focus groups, specialized recipes, expert chefs and detailed product information to allow consumers and businesses to better understand shopping and marketing options—in the virtual and real worlds.

Lempert is the author of Being the Shopper and Healthy, Wealthy & Wise . His previous books include: Phil Lempert’s Supermarket Shopping & Value Guide, Top Ten Trends for Baby Boomers and Crisis Management: A Workbook for Survival.

Phil Lempert graduated from Drexel University with degrees in Marketing and Retail Management.   He worked at McDonald’s and Howard Johnson’s before joining his family’s food brokerage firm. Lempert went on to found Lempert Advertising, a full-service, award-winning advertising agency.  

In the early 1990s, Lempert became a partner and senior vice president of Age Wave, a leading demographic and life-stage consulting company that focuses on the life path of the Baby Boom Generation—from birth through a new style of retirement.   

A resident of California, Lempert’s roots are in the Belleville, New Jersey, dairy farm started by his grandfather. The family food tradition carried on through his father’s work as a food manufacturer, distributor and broker and then to Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru ® .

Philip Lempert has gained wide acclaim for his marketing savvy and broad experience. A distinguished speaker, exclusively represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau , he has addressed over 600,000 people over the past ten years, and is a respected analyst with an uncanny ability to identify and explain trends to both industry and consumers in a thought provoking and entertaining manner.

You can contact him directly at Plempert@supermarketguru.com

Kathy Nisivoccia, Television and Radio Producer

Kathy started checking those supermarket shelves and attending food trade shows with Phil back in 1983. A working Mom with 3 daughters and an always hungry husband, Kathy makes sure that our visitors, readers, listeners and viewers are on top of the latest trends on radio and television.
Checking out the latest products sounds like a fun job and it is, most of the time. There have been some of those "misses" like Bing Crosby's Ice Cream, Dennis Rodman's Lolly Pops and Billy Beer that she wishes she never heard of!
If you see or hear of a new product [a hit or a miss] let Kathy know! You can contact her at Kathy@supermarketguru.com .

Danielle Margulies, SupermarketGuru.com Managing Editor, Columnist

With a degree in Fine Art and having worked for years in restaurants and other fields such as fashion and skincare to subsidize her passion for creating art Danielle brings a variety of experience to the roles of SupermarketGuru.com's managing editor and of overseeing day to day operations at Consumer Insight. Fuelled by her keen interest in food and cookery, but hampered by her own food allergies she is now rekindling her passion for writing - one of her first loves - with her weekly column; Allergy Friendly. You can see examples of her paintings at www.myspace.com/danielle_artist. You can email Danielle at danielle@supermarketGuru.com

Sally Eckels, Coffee Chat News, Food Nutrition and Science and Facts, Figures and the Future Managing Editor

Sally Eckels came to Consumer Insight with a diverse background from music and television to teaching. After moving to Los Angeles from Georgia and working as a media specialist for elementary and middle school students, Sally met Phil and is now working as managing editor of Coffee Chat News, Food Nutrition and Science and Facts, Figures and the Future newsletters. With a business degree from Belmont University and two years at The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Sally also currently plays guitar, writes songs, and sings and was a regular character on the CBS television series “Christy.” Contact her at sally@supermarketguru.com

Al Heller Al Heller, contributor

Retail and health care journalist and touch-football quarterback, Al is the co-author of books Consumer-Centric Category Management (Nielsen/Wiley) and The Passive Solar-Dome Greenhouse (Garden Way), Al has written numerous industry reports and other books, and has earned awards for his editing of food, drug and mass channel magazines. His dad turned a small knish shop into a NYC landmark, and exposed Al to food operations early. Al has coached youth basketball and baseball; donates to blood services and disease charities; and has parasailed in Mexico and helicoptered over live Hawaiian volcanoes. He has an MBA degree in Marketing from Fordham University.

Diana Greenwood Mead, Contributor

Diana, an avid gardener for thirty years lives in Hampshire, England. She is a botanical artist and is a member and medalist of the Royal Horticultural Society and has exhibited pictures both with the RHS and the Botanical Society.
Diana's combined interest in horticulture and art has been a lifelong passion and her earliest memory of creating art involves an elaborate mural drawn on a hotel bedroom wall in her mother's favorite Elizabeth Arden lipstick.
Diana's two main interests in painting are architectural and botanical and she has exhibited with the Society of Botanic Artists, at the Mall Galleries and at the Royal Horticultural Society's winter shows in London.

Jerry King, Contributor

Award-winning cartoonist Jerry King is one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
His work has appeared in thousands of greeting cards, magazines, Web sites, books, newspapers, newsletters and children's books. His client list includes Disney, American Greetings, The United States Golf Assoc., and many others. Jerry's magazine credits include Better Homes and Gardens, Golf Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, National Enquirer, Woman's World and hundreds of others world wide.