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Some stats from the recent “Power of Meat” report from analytics firm 210 Analytics: 

With $87.1 billion in annual sales, 98.3% household penetration and nearly 50 shopping trips per year, meat is the most powerful of the perimeter departments. Sales reached another record, up 5.7% versus a year ago and retailers continued to move more pounds than they did prior to the pandemic. Beef is the biggest seller in fresh, followed by chicken. In processed, bacon and pre-packaged lunch meat are the top movers.

Meat is hot. Case ready is on the rise, and 87% of home-prepared dinners (still very much a trend) contain a portion of meat or poultry. Shoppers are hungry for meat, and grocers who are smart about tapping into that hunger and optimizing their offers in this category are sure to benefit from a sales perspective. 

Other trend highlights from Power of Meat:

• Meat department sales and engagement remained strong in 2022. With $87.1 billion in sales, 98.3% household penetration and 50 shopping trips per year, meat is the most powerful of the fresh departments. Sales grew 5.7% vs. 2021 and pound sales remained above pre-pandemic levels (IRI).  
• Shifts in channel choices are prompting changes in the meat/poultry dollar distribution. Demographic and inflationary forces have resulted in a loss of share for traditional grocery from 42.8% of meat and poultry sales in 2019 to 40.3% in 2022 (IRI) — a shift of several billions of dollars. Supercenters, clubs and online outlets, all over indexing for Millennials, gained in share. Online meat sales grew on better conversion and more frequent orders. 
• A strong meat department reputation helps drive traffic for the entire store. Price, location and assortment dominate the grocery store choice, with meat being the most influential department. Prices, quality and reputation decide where people buy most of their meat/poultry. A strong meat reputation is driven by freshness and quality of the product itself, a clean and well-stocked department with good prices and service excellence.

Supermarket News spoke with Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, for a breakdown of Power of Meat, as well as another recent monthly meat report from the firm, in addition to looking ahead at trends and predicted growth for meat in 2023. 

Take a listen.

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