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With Americans enduring heat waves, you’d think that ice cream would be flying out of supermarket freezers, but it turns out that sales over the last few years have been a bit of a rocky road.
After peaking in 2020, when Covid shutdowns saw increasing numbers of consumers indulging in ice cream at home instead of ice cream shops, unit sales have been dropping, according to recent data from 84.51˚, the retail data science company Kroger owns.
Due to inflationary prices, however, revenues are up slightly (~1%) for the 52 weeks ending June 8, according to the 84.51° Stratum database, which aggregates data from the more than 62 million households that shopped at Kroger-owned grocery stores over the last year.
Cold comfort: A bright spot for the industry shines on ice cream lovers who want to save by buying in bulk: Dollar sales of pails of the diet-annihilating six-quart size have risen 35% over the last year.
The top flavor of ice cream in those pails is that no-frills stalwart vanilla, followed by chocolate and, in third, Neapolitan. (Yes, pedants, Neapolitan combines three flavors, but we don’t make the rules).
Remember the à la mode: As for seasonal spikes, it will come as no surprise that the Fourth of July marks one of three biggest annual spikes, but the other two aren’t during the summer months. Rather, they fall on Thanksgiving and Christmas, presumably because ice cream is an excellent accompaniment for all those homemade pies.