Deli meat continues its struggles.

Year-to-date through April 26, meat department dollar sales were up 21.7%, boosted by double-digit growth for seven weeks running.

In-home consumption is here to stay for the foreseeable future and the additional demand continued to push retail sales well above prior year levels.

During these past six weeks, the meat department has emerged as the sales leader of the fresh perimeter.

While the big panic-buying weeks in non-edibles appear to be behind us, meat sales remained highly elevated during the week ending April 5.

The final week of March showed ongoing stocking up in food and beverages while non-food stockpiling showed signs of easing.

Meat sales rose along with consumer anxiety levels about Coronavirus during the week of March 22.