The week ending July 19 was the second of eight non-holiday weeks between Independence Day and Labor Day. Over the past two months, everyday demand had been experiencing week to week erosion as consumers started reengaging with foodservice. However, the rising number of cases of COVID-19 around the country prompted many states to roll back at least some of the previously relaxed social distancing measures, including restaurant capacity and dine-in mandates. This reversal along with rising consumer concern over COVID-19 is shifting dollars back from foodservice to food retail once more.
For the week of July 19, the elevated everyday demand resulted in a 23.4% increase in dollar sales versus year ago for the meat department. This is two percentage points higher than the prior week and the highest gain since late May. This also became the 18th week of double-digit gains since the onset of the pandemic. While higher prices drove much of this gain, volume gains hit double digits for the first time since the week of June 21, Father’s Day week, at +10.3%. Unit sales continue to wow as well, with 19.6 million more transactions compared with same week year ago and 820 million more transactions since the pandemic began. Pre-pandemic, total meat department units were down versus year ago. This points to more, but smaller, packages sold.