I was fortunate to attend the Food and Grocery Australia 2016 conference in Brisbane last week, hosted by the Australian Food and Grocery Council.  It was a well attended conference with an excellent line up of speakers.  But having attended this conference for over 20 years, what surprised me was how little this industry has actually moved, especially when it comes to retail.  There were presentations from Senior Executives at Woolworths, Coles and Metcash (respectively: we've got to do better; we need cheaper prices from suppliers; we're on the right path) that failed to address the many significant issues that plague retail in Australia today, and that have frankly plagued the industry for years.  The response to Aldi's growth in Australia is a fight to the bottom, despite many analysts and industry experts saying that just doesn't work, and citing what has and has not succeeded around the world in the battle against the discounters.  Not one retailer spoke about omni-channel. And there was little discussion about customer service.  And interestingly, there was little discussion about loyalty despite the millions that Coles and Woolworths have spent on it.  Maybe there is a growing realisation, finally, that loyalty doesn't work, especially with the new statistics showing how frequently shoppers shop in multiple retailers.  The one retailer that did mention the power of customer relationships was Metcash, where through the IGA format they really can deliver true relationships, though they still have a way to go to perfect that.  The bottom line after three days - we've still got a long way to go to deliver superior customer service and develop true customer relationships.  Didn't I say that 10 years ago?  Not a lot has changed....