Without holidays, baked good sales drop: COVID-19 Impact Report

IDDBA’s latest COVID-19 impact report finds that the week ending June 28 fell in between two holidays (Father’s Day and July 1 in Canada and July 4 for the U.S.) meaning everyday demand alone had to boost sales past last year’s levels. Thus far, the reopening of restaurants has led to an increase in transactions and spending, according to the association.

“We expected that the non-holiday week would mean a return to the small erosion of week-to-week sales gains,” said Jeremy Johnson, VP of education for IDDBA in the report. “And there is an important lesson in that. While next week’s report covers July 4th which we expect to be big, we have many non-holiday weeks between Independence and Labor Day. It will be imperative to go back to retailing fundamentals to drive dairy, deli and bakery sales through optimized household engagement, trip frequency and basket size within the new normal.”

“Father’s Day week pushed all baked goods items back in positive territory, but the pattern did not hold for the fresh bakery during the last week of June. However, taking the holiday day week out of the equation shows continued recovery of the in-store bakery as stores are starting to adapt to the new shopping patterns,” the report continued.

To read the rest of the report, click HERE.