With many lunch, dinner and snack occasions having moved from restaurants, campuses, school cafeterias and other foodservice establishments to at home, the demand for hot dogs at retail sky-rocketed along with it. Hot dogs very quickly ramped up as a go-to solution for families as a kid-friendly, protein dense, versatile and easy-to-prepare solution amid the coronavirus outbreak. During regular times, hot dogs are a $2.3 billion category with 52-week growth of +0.7%, according to IRI. But sales quickly geared up as shoppers started stocking up on staples in March. 210 Analytics analyzed the IRI sales data for the week ending April 12 — Easter week. Hot dog sales have seen double- and triple-digit increases ever since the week ending March 8. The two panic purchase weeks, March 15 and 22 were the biggest for hot dog sales as well. But with increases of between 35% and 45%, the subsequent weeks remained highly elevated.
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Beef hot dogs represent about 61% of total hot dog sales and grew the most. Sales during Easter week were still up 42%, despite the enormous increases in prior weeks. This points to a higher everyday demand following the initial stock-up purchases.