Supermarket News
Data is for the 52 weeks ending 6/14/09
Food bought at supermarkets, ranked by dollar value
1. Carbonated beverages ($12.00 billion)
2. Milk ($11.20 billion)
3. Fresh bread & rolls ($9.57 billion)
4. Beer/ale/hard cider ($8.17 billion)
5. Salty snacks ($8.09 billion)
6. Natural cheese ($7.64 billion)
7. Frozen dinners/entrees ($6.13 billion)
8. Cold cereal ($6.11 billion)
9. Wine ($5.49 billion)
10. Cigarettes ($4.63 billion)
Here's the data from Nielsen, also ranked by dollar value. However, this data is for the 52 weeks ending 8/08/09:
1. Bread and baked goods
2. Carbonated beverages
3. Fresh produce
4. Snacks
5. Milk
6. Packaged meat
7. Cheese
8. Pet food
9. Prepared frozen foods
10. Beer
11. Candy
12. Medications/remedies
13. Cereal
Then there's the government's numbers for 2008:
2008 Consumer Expenditure Survey Data
Bureau of Labor Statistics
All food - $778 billion
Food consumed at home - $452 billion
Food consumed away from home - $326 billion
Of the food consumed at home by category:
Cereals and bakery products: $61 billion
Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs: $102 billion
Dairy: $52 billion
Fruits & veg: $79 billion
Other food: $158 billion
Within those larger categories, here's how the subcategories break down:
1. Non-alcoholic beverages: $41 billion
1. Bakery products: $41 billion
3. Other dairy: $32 billion
4. Beef: $29 billion
5. Fresh fruits: $27 billion
6. Fresh veg: $26 billion
7. Cereals and cereal products: $21 billion
8. Fresh milk and cream: $20 billion
8. Pork: $20 billion
10. Poultry: $19 billion
11. Sugars and other sweets: $16 billion
12. Fish/seafood: $15 billion
13. Processed fruits: $14 billion
14. Processed veg: $13 billion
14. Fats/oils: $13 billion
14. Other meats: $13 billion
17. Eggs: $6 billion
... and Miscellaneous: $82 billion
It seems to me that the lists can be easily manipulated by the following factors:
1. Which food is included (all food purchased vs. food bought in supermarkets)
2. How food is categorized (Dairy vs. milk + other dairy vs. milk + cheese + other dairy)
3. How the data is gathered (consumer surveys vs. supermarket scanner data, etc)
4. What is included or excluded (i.e. beer, wine, cigarettes)
And since this is only a look at dollar value, it ignores how much of each item people actually buy, as one would have to buy a whole lot of a cheap item to outweigh something relatively expensive (like wine). But here's another way to view the data. This comes from Nielsen's data for the 52 weeks ending 08/08/09, based on the number of unit sales (not dollar value)
1. Carbonated beverages
2. Bread & baked goods
3. Fresh produce
4. Snacks
5. Candy
6. Milk
7. Vegetables - canned
8. Packaged meat
9. Soup
10. Yogurt
(Again, consider that this can be manipulated based on the package size that items are sold in. Yogurt, for example, comes in single-serving sizes, whereas milk is often sold as a gallon or half gallon. You'd need more units of yogurt than milk if you were going to consume 1 serving of each every day.) |
