June brought continued normalization of grocery shopping patterns. The share of consumers who are ‘extremely concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic dropped to 22% of the U.S. population. That is the lowest level since IRI started to track consumer concern among primary grocery shoppers as of mid-March 2020.
This lesser concern has resulted in consumers feeling more relaxed while shopping for groceries in-store, spending a little more time and being more open to search for new items and meal ideas. The result is a vastly different marketplace in which stores are welcoming shoppers more often and baskets are smaller than those last year, though per-trip spending remains higher than 2019.
In June 2021, all week of frozen food sales were nearly $1.3 billion. Frozen foods have the highest increase versus the pre-pandemic normal of 2019, at +21.9%.
| % sales change versus year ago | % sales change versus year ago | |||
| Year-to-date 2021 through 6/27/2021 | Dollar Size | Dollar Sales vs. 2020 | Dollar Sales vs. 2019 | Unit Sales vs. 2020 |
| Total food and beverages | $334B | -1.4% | +14.4% | -5.0% |
| Total fresh perimeter | $152B | -0.4% | +13.3% | -3.1% |
| Total Frozen | $33B | -2.0% | +21.9% | -4.2% |
Source: IRI, Integrated Fresh, Total US, MULO, % change vs. year ago.
The rapid march back to year-ago levels resulted in a few areas outpacing 2020 sales. These include breakfast foods (+10.9%) and dinners/entrees (+4.9%), which are both sizeable categories. Other contributing categories were processed poultry, novelties and snacks. Frozen food demand continues to hold at very high levels. AFFI members are invited to take a deeper dive into the numbers and statistics from June in the latest Retail Market Insights report brought to you by AFFI, IRI and 210 Analytics.
Join us for a webinar led by IRI on this topic: “Frozen Food Trends: Strategies for Success in a New Consumer Environment” on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.
