Retail Tracker #2

Retail Tracker Report

Period ending 12/01/2024

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.

• November brought an improvement in consumer sentiment, taking it to the highest point in seven years. Post Thanksgiving sales reflected similar optimism, with a 7% increase over 2023 taking sales to $40.6 billion.
• Thanksgiving was later this year, making week-to-week comparisons harder, but November experienced a 3.7% dollar sales increase over last year, with robust increases for the meat and produce departments.
• The quad-week generated $124 million in sales for fresh mushrooms, down 1.8%, the same percentage as the 52-week view.
• However, volume sales compared to the prior quad week was up 10.9%, the highest percentage increase since 2017 — demonstrating that holidays remain an important time when light mushroom consumers engage.
• White mushrooms made up a larger share of total sales during the quad week, which is related to the light mushroom consumers coming into the category during Thanksgiving.
• Organic remains a substantial growth area for fresh mushrooms, with gains in dollars, units and volume.