November and December sales were dominated by the holidays along with consumers’ shopping changes in response to the rapidly rising number of new COVID-19 cases across many states. Some states and cities enacted renewed shelter-in-place mandates. This resulted in consumers’ trip frequency falling below last year’s levels, much like it had in early April. Likewise, e-commerce transactions made a return to spring levels. Holiday celebrations were vastly different for Thanksgiving and the December holidays alike. There was less travel, smaller gatherings and many consumers shopped much earlier or online to avoid holiday crowds. But, unlike the spring when similar conditions drove grocery sales double digits above year ago levels, December grocery spending was the most subdued it has been since the onset of the pandemic. December sales for all food-and-beverage-related items (total edibles) increased 8.1% versus 2019 levels, which was down from +9.7% in November and +8.5% in October.
The December sales growth was strong in all the weeks leading up to Christmas. December meat department sales increased 12.9%, excluding online-only and delivery e-commerce sales that would have been significantly higher than in 2019. In some cases, retailers encouraged online shopping to manage traffic flow during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year. Some provided free delivery, ramped up their curbside order slots and encouraged earlier shopping. Yet, multi-outlet sales the week ending December 27 had the highest gains, at 19.2% above year ago levels, reflecting an additional $275 million in addition meat department dollars.