Cheese Thrives During Pandemic

Cheese is yet another deli and dairy category that is thriving during the pandemic. Total dollar sales of deli cheese were up over 12% to the tune of $6.9 billion in sales. Deli grab-and-go cheese in the deli did a brisk $1.4 billion in business.

Total Deli Cheese

Total U.S. multioutlet | “YA” is the year ago for the same weeks ending 2019; 3 YA is the same weeks ending 2017 | IRI Unify in the Integrated Fresh database which combines fixed- and random-weight items

Notes: Deli cheese includes both fixed- and random-weight items. The fixed-weight items are chosen based on IRI industry knowledge of known items in the deli department. Deli service also includes items sold “grab-and-go” that are previously sliced by deli staff then merchandised outside the deli service case. Deli pre-sliced is fixed-weight only items that are packaged prior to the store by manufacturers.

Source: IRI Syndicated Integrated Fresh database, which combines random- and fixed-weight brands/product types known to be sold in this department at the majority of retailers

Measures: Dollar sales refers to the total cumulative dollar sales sold for that product during the time period (not included, but used as reference); dollar sales change refers to the percent difference between the current and prior period for total dollar sales; dollar share to dept. refers to the total dollar sales of that product divided by the total dollar sales of the department to which it belongs; dollar share to category refers to the total dollar sales of that subcategory divided by the total dollar sales of the parent category