SUMMER 2021 33
15.1%
22.7%
11.7%
1.6%
17.6%
14.3%
9.0%
12.2%
24.0%
15.2%
New for 2021, SFA also looked at sales performance for the top specialty food
and beverage subcategories. Sandwich staples like refrigerated cheese and deli
meat grew the most in 2020. Bread loaves logically grew as well, though not as
fast. COVID adversely impacted several key subcategories, too. Grab-and-go
items like yogurt grew slower than the market, as lockdown closed o‚ces and
schools and consumers no longer turned to these convenience foods as frequent-
ly. Despite chocolate's universal appeal, the subcategory didn't grow nearly as
fast as the market, which indicates that consumers were to some degree focusing
on necessary versus indulgent products.
Overall, some of these growth rates are lower than one might expect given the
popularity of some subcategories. However, even prior to COVID, these fairly
mature subcategories were often growing more modestly than average. Con-
sumer trade down to conventional products or private labels due to economic
concerns over the past year is another contributing factor.
Does not include retailers' private-label sales, specialty food perishables (PLU or random-weight specialty items sold in a
supermarket's bakery, deli, meat, and seafood sections), or sales through online or foodservice channels.
*Rankings are based on dollar sales from raw SPINS data. We only tabulate YoY growth here because our methodology for
estimating total retail dollar sales does not include granularity down to the subcategory level.
**Due to the complexity of our methodology, only YoY growth is tabulated from raw SPINS data.
SOURCE: SPINS/SFA
by 2020 Sales with
Growth 2019-2020
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Specialty Food — What is Selling Now
Cheese, sliced and snack
(Refrigerated)
Deli meat
Milk
Sushi
(Refrigerated)
Bread loaves
Ice cream
Yogurt
(Refrigerated)
Chocolate
Cheese
(Refrigerated)
Cošee beans and grounds
Top 10 Subcategories
