Retail Tracker #2

Retail Tracker Report

Period ending 05/18/2025

Produced every four weeks, the Retail Tracker Report provides insight into category dollar sales, segment and variety sales, average price per pound, and other helpful metrics.

• Consumer sentiment remained subdued, falling for the fourth straight month over concerns related to personal finances and business conditions.
• According to placer.ai, restaurant visits are starting to stabilize after year-over-year decreases in January and February.
• Placer.ai identified “innovative value” as the common growth factor among areas that are bucking overall trip trends. The six Cs that are experiencing trip growth refer to: coffee, chicken, Chili’s, Cava, Chuck E. Cheese and Chipotle.
• The total produce department grew dollars, units and pounds in the quad-week ending May 18th, but this is driven by fruit. Vegetable sales have experienced dollar pressure for several months running.
• Sales declines were driven by deflation in most months, however, vegetable sales experienced dollar, units and volume declines during the four weeks ending May 18th — signaling weaker demand. Frozen vegetable sales did increase during the same four weeks.
• Mushroom sales at retail also continued to decline. The rate of decline jumped to -6.6% for dollar sales during the quad-week versus -3.1% for the 52-week view.