Of Turkey Bacon and Disinfectants: The Pandemic’s Impact on Shopping Two Years Later

Two years after the World Health Organization officially declared covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, many categories that experienced high growth during the pandemic's first year have retreated partially, but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. Other previously struggling categories have seen modest increases over the past year, according to data culled by Catalina, a St. Petersburg, FL-based shopper intelligence company.

Through its “Buyer Intelligence Platform,” Catalina has tracked the pandemic's impact on buying behavior at grocery stores across the US. The Top 10 categories seeing the greatest sales growth during year one of the pandemic have either seen strong year-over-year increases since 2019 (pre-pandemic) or experienced declines last year. The majority are still above where they were when the pandemic began.

TOP 10 CATEGORIES	Year 1: Dollars/Store Change 52 weeks  ending 3/13/21 vs. prior year	Year 2: Dollars/Store change 52 weeks  ending  3/12/22 vs. prior year	Cumulative:   Dollars/Store change Year 2 vs. 2 years ago
Home Health Testing	+251%	+100%	+602%
Liquid Hand Soaps	+174%	-57%	+19%
Cheese Slices – Processed/Lite	+141%	-24%	+83%
Bacon –  Light/Turkey/Chicken	+137%	+39%	+230%
Personal Moist Towelettes	+108%	-56%	–  7%
Refrigerated Snacks/Cakes	+101%	+16%	+133%
Disinfectant Cleaners	+98%	-32%	+34%
Camping Sports & Accessories	+90%	-16%	+60%
Frozen Vegetables, Breaded	+89%	+21%	+129%
Frozen Cookie & Brownie Dough	+82%	-5%	+74%

The data also reveals that people by and large are still conscious about fighting germs, just not as much, with sales for liquid hand soaps, personal moist towelettes, and household disinfectants all dropping in 2021, but currently still reflecting higher sales than pre-pandemic levels, said Catalina.

With so many Americans working or studying from home during year one of the pandemic, sales of personal care products initially dropped but then started to recover as covid transmission and hospitalization rates began to fall early in year two. They then started to decline again when the Omicron variant began to spread later in the year, noted Catalina.

PERSONAL CARE CATEGORIES	Year 1: Dollars/Store Change 52 weeks  ending 3/13/21 vs. prior year	Year 2: Dollars/Store change 52 weeks ending 3/12/22 vs. prior year	Cumulative: Dollars/Store change Year 2 vs. 2 years ago
Wrinkle Reducers	-32%	+19%	-18%
Breath Fresheners	-38%	+23%	-24%
Face Cosmetics	-29%	+21%	-14%
Cosmetic Remover	-31%	+16%	-20%
Eye Cosmetics	-20%	+21%	-4%
Hair Care/Styling	-20%	+17%	-6%