The week ending June 28 fell in between Father’s Day and July 4th. The meat department had much improved its in-stock position and assortment continued to recover from May lows. However, prices remained highly elevated and that was the big unknown relative to everyday demand versus year ago. The second unknown was consumer engagement with foodservice, with restaurants in most parts of the country reopened, albeit with social distancing measures in place.
Ultimately, the demand landscape resulted in a 15.8% increase for dollars — the 16th week of double-digit gains since the onset of the pandemic. However, it was price that drove the gain with volume nearly in line with the prior year, at -0.6%. This was the first time since the start of the pandemic purchasing in early March that meat pound sales were lower than the same week year ago. The dollar/volume gap did improve somewhat versus the prior week, at 16.4 percentage points 18.4 points during Father’s Day week.