The first week of June marks three full months of coronavirus-related shopping patterns. Following a spike in trips and spending to unprecedented levels in mid-March, the market settled into a period of fewer trips but bigger baskets. The well-publicized meat supply shortages in May drove a rebound in trips for meat whereas purchase limitations and/or limited availability along with high prices started to pressure volume sales. Dollar gains have been trending in the double digits since the onset of the pandemic.
For our first look at June, supply chain issues continued with prices highly elevated over this time last year. Yet, demand remained above last year’s levels in both dollars and volume, even as restaurants around the country started seeing improvements in reservations, transactions and continued record levels of takeout business. At retail, purchase limits started to resolve, though geographic differences were significant. During the first week of June, dollar sales grew 19.4% versus year ago and volume grew 1.9%, its lowest gain since the first week of March. Shoppers may be using their freezer stash as back up and are also highly engaged with seafood, frozen meat and frozen seafood sales, that have all been highly elevated for weeks.