The first week of May, overall meat sales jumped to their highest levels since March 22, at +51.3%. Hot dog sales remained highly elevated as well, at +36% versus the same week last year. American households continue to turn to hot dogs as a convenient and kid-friendly solution with many more at-home meal occasions. The week ending May 3 marked the ninth week of multi-digit year-over-year sales gains for hot dogs versus a virtually flat performance in 2019. While dollars increased 36%, volume sales increased 19% over the week of May 3 versus the comparable week in 2019, according to IRI. The 17-point gap between volume and dollar sales is unchanged from last week.
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National brands make up 97% of total hot dog sales and grew dollar sales 36.2%. Beef hot dogs represented nearly 65% of total hot dog sales and grew the most, at +44.1%. Nine weeks of double- and triple-digit increases, particularly during Easter week, and going up against Easter 2019 sales, points to a much higher everyday demand following the initial stock-up purchases.