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Grocery basket size up, store trips down 6 months into pandemic

Food shopper spending per trip jumped 19% in August, Catalina says

Russell Redman

September 16, 2020

3 Min Read
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Grocery customer spending rose 6% from $310 to $330 per month on average in August, while shopping trips fell almost 11% versus a year ago, Catalina reported.Walmart

Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. grocery shoppers are settling into a new routine, with the number of monthly store visits declining nearly twice as fast as spending has risen, according to digital marketing specialist Catalina.

In August, grocery customer spending rose 6% from $310 to $330 per month on average, while shopping trips fell almost 11% versus a year ago, Catalina said Wednesday.

The United States declared coronavirus as a national emergency on March 13, two days after the World Health Organization declared the spread of the virus as a pandemic. Looking at the past six months of grocery purchase data, Catalina said shoppers made more trips than average in March as the health crisis set in and then slashed their number of store trips in April as they locked down at home. New patterns emerged in May that continue to the present day, with the number of grocery store trips down about 10% from May through August.

Last month, grocery shoppers made an average of 6.7 retailer trips per month, down from 7.5 trips in Aug. 2019, a decrease of nearly 11%. However, basket size has swelled 19%, with customers spending an average of $49.28 per trip compared with $41.38 a year ago, a trend that has been consistent since June, St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina noted.

Related:Food pricing remains elevated, but signs of easing emerge

On a monthly basis, the $20 uptick in average grocery spending in August followed more dramatic growth from March to May, which started to come down in June, Catalina said.

“Our data scientists and advanced analytics teams have been mining Catalina’s unparalleled Buyer Intelligence Database, which captures up to three years of purchase history and more than 2 billion Universal Product Codes that are scanned daily in the U.S., to track how buying behavior and decisions have continued to shift since concerns over COVID-19 took hold earlier this year,” explained Chief Marketing Officer Marta Cyhan. “These real-time insights have helped our retail and brand customers adjust their marketing, media and activation strategies, while also helping to inform their stocking and supply chain decisions.”

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In early April, Catalina launched a COVID-19 Interactive Map on its website to report sales data across 78 major grocery and drug categories from states nationwide, as well as the District of Columbia, going back to the week ending Feb. 15, when COVID-19 awareness and concerns began to gain traction. The company said that although the top six categories over the past six months jumped around between March and May, they have held the same ranking for the past three months.

Related:Survey: Most grocery shoppers favor in-store purchases amid pandemic

Sales gains “continued unabated” in the following categories in August: home health testing kits and face masks, up 367% year over year; liquid hand soap, up 224%; disinfectant cleaners, up 212%; light/turkey/chicken bacon, up 121%; dry/refrigerated yeast, up 103%; and produce/wash-and-rinse cleaners, up 102%.

“Notably, face masks account for 80% of the home health testing category, which accounts for the strong sales surge as more governing bodies emphasize the importance of wearing face coverings to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19,” Catalina stated.

For the six months beginning in March through August, sales jumped 286% year over year in liquid hand soap, 259% in home health testing kits and face masks, 212% in disinfectant cleaners, 189% in frozen meal starters, 126% in shelf-stable/refrigerated meat substitutes and 117% in dry/refrigerated yeast, according to Catalina.

“Due to the pandemic, many new buyers came into center store categories that were declining in 2019. We are partnering with our clients to convert those buyers from panic buyers to loyal buyers,” Cyhan added. “We will continue to monitor our Buyer Intelligence Database to keep our customers informed of changing shopping behaviors and sales impacts, including when purchase cycles become more predictable, because this will have a big impact on supply chains and give marketers and retailers valuable insights on how and when to best market their brands.”

For our most up-to-date coverage, visit the coronavirus homepage.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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