Two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery shopping continues to evolve, and the meat purchase along with it. Throughout the nonstop evolution of shopping patterns, there has been one constant: the meat department has been the undisputed sales leader of the perimeter. While the prior week sales gain of 50% seemed tough to beat, the prominent coverage of plant closures in the consumer media drove yet another wave of shoppers stocking up on meat and poultry. For the week ending May 3, meat department dollar sales were up 51.3% and volume increased 37.2%. Year-to-date through May 3, meat department dollar sales were up 23.3%, boasting double-digit growth for eight weeks running. Year-to-date volume sales through May 3 were up 17.1% over the same period in 2019.
Dollar versus Volume Gains
Pounds have been trailing dollars for years, but the gap between volume and dollar sales remained wide —signaling pressure on pricing due to tightness in the supply chain. The latest four weeks ending May 3 versus the comparable period in 2019 showed double digit volume/dollar gaps for beef, turkey, exotic meats and many processed meats, with the widest gap for turkey at 12.3 percentage points. Chicken had the smallest gap of the bigger proteins, at 5.4 percentage points. Bacon, buoyed by ample supply given lacking foodservice demand in recent weeks, is the only area where dollars and pounds increased at the same rate.