Meat sales surge even higher, up 91%

The past few weeks have seen incredible spikes in grocery sales as the nation hunkered down amid the growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. According to IRI, meat has been the leading sales driver for the perimeter, up by 91% for the week ending March 22, with volume sales up 78%. This is on top of the 7% dollar increase for the week ending March 8 and the 77% surge the week ending March 15. Meat sales among regional and independent grocers were particularly strong this week, with consumer demand often exceeding the offering. “Our demand on orders has been as high as 600% over the norm for some of our independent grocer customers,” says the Meat and Seafood Director for a large wholesaler. “We ran at double the sales volume and could have tripled it if we had had product and selection time. The attendance in our warehouses was excellent and stores are getting caught up.”

Meat sales rose along with consumer anxiety levels during the week of March 22. IRI found that 58% of consumers were extremely concerned about COVID-19, up from 38% the prior week. This resulted in all meat and poultry moving at unprecedented volumes, whether fresh or fully cooked items. The inflection point  in shopping behavior was the week of March 1, when non-edibles started to gear up, but meat sales gains were still much in line with trends seen in 2019, ranging from -5% (pork) to +1% (lamb). Meat sales started to rise the subsequent week ending March 8, with increases between 4% (lamb) and 10% (turkey).