It's been a year of mixed blessings for many fresh food departments. Wholesale prices fell steeply in a couple of key categories, such as dairy products and eggs. That's good news for shoppers and good news for margins, but when a $10 billion category like milk faces a 10% decline in sales after an 8.4% drop the prior year, that's a lot of volatility, and a lot of dollars that weren't put through supermarket registers. Eggs, a $3 billion category, saw a similar 7.6% drop during the latest 52 weeks, while cheese, a $7.2 billion category, fell 5.6% despite a solid increase in volume.
But, for the most part, unit sales have remained steady for the perishables categories covered by SymphonyIRI Group. And, this year's report once again highlights a few smaller categories that have shown a lot of promise in recent years — hummus, refrigerated pasta and refrigerated baked goods, for example, all posted dollar sales growth between 8% and 19%.
FRESH MARKET KEY CATEGORIES
| DOLLAR SALES | % CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milk | $10.1B | -10.2 | 57 |
| Natural Cheese | $7.2B | -5.6 | 57 |
| RFG Juices/Drinks | $4.1B | -0.9 | 58 |
| Yogurt | $3.9B | 5.7 | 58 |
| Luncheon Meats | $3.4B | -0.3 | 60 |
| RFG Fresh Eggs | $3.1B | -7.6 | 60 |
| Vegetables (canned) | $2.4B | 2.6 | 61 |
| RFG Side Dishes | $1.4B | 4.3 | 62 |
| RFG Spreads | $413.8M | 16.4 | 62 |
| RFG Teas/Coffee | $341.9M | 7.0 | 63 |
| Other RFG Products | $266.1M | 5.7 | 64 |
| RFG Salad Dressing | $252.8M | 3.5 | 64 |
| RFG Baked Goods | $237.2M | 9.0 | 65 |
| RFG Pizza | $224.7M | 7.9 | 66 |
| RFG Pasta/Noodles | $217.5M | 9.0 | 66 |
