January 8, 2012

Increase in prices in the US has resulted in lower seafood department ad counts and volume percent lift on promotion over the past year, down 2.8% and 14.2%, respectively.

Price increases drove the 6.8% decline in weekly seafood volume per store, making seafood the only fresh supermarket department to have a decline (-0.5%) in average dollar sales per store per week.

Shrimp is the second-largest category in the seafood department, accounting for 26.6% of the department's sales. The category accounted for 33.4% of total dollars in fresh seafood, down half a percentage point versus the same period last year. Over the past five years, average retail shrimp prices at stable stores rose from US$7.61 in 2006 to US$8.11 in 2010. That trend has continued in the latest 52 weeks ending October 29, 2011, as average retails have increased 10.3%. Raw shrimp accounted for 58.9% of shrimp sales.

In the 52-week period shrimp brought in the most sales between the weeks ending December 25, 2010, through January 8, 2011. Weekly sales were highest the week ending December 25, at US$3,343 per store, coinciding with Christmas. The lowest weekly sales ended December 4, 2010, the week after Thanksgiving, with sales of US$1,190 per store per week. Both the top and bottom sales weeks were down compared to the prior year. 

Sales decreased 3.2% overall in all four US regions down. The Eastern region led weekly shrimp sales, bringing in US$2,539 per store (down 4.4% from the prior year). The Central region had the highest percentage of shrimp dollars coming from cooked shrimp at 58.7%. While weekly sales in the Southern region trailed the East by nearly US$1,000 per store, it accounted for the largest amount of total dollars, at 38.4% of total US shrimp sales. The Southern region also had the highest percentage of shrimp dollars in raw shrimp, at 68.7%. The Western region sold US$1,417 per store per week, down 2.2%.   

Contrary to department trends, shrimp increased ad count 2.4% in the 52 weeks; however, the volume percent lift on promotion declined 23.4% compared to the prior year as promotional retail prices increased 11.1%. Retailers also shifted ad types from buy-one-get-one (down 9.8%) and price multiple promotions (down 52.2%) to more coupon (up 66.7%) and sale promotional ads (up 2.9%). Consumers continue to feel the economic pressures of today's market and pull back spending from the shrimp category as retail prices continue to climb, even as retailers increase their promotions and change the promotional mix.