{"id":822258,"date":"2026-07-24T03:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822258\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T03:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:53:13","slug":"grocery-unit-sales-sink-for-five-straight-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822258\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery unit sales sink for five straight months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food and beverage brands\u2019 efforts to get consumers to buy more<\/a> haven\u2019t quite been bearing fruit so far this year.<\/p>\n

According to new analysis from Bain using NielsenIQ data, unit sales for US grocery have been down nearly 2% YoY most months from February through June, with June sales down 1.8% YoY.<\/p>\n

The consistent drop in unit growth began in mid-2025, Bain found. Inflated prices between 2% and 3% haven\u2019t been enough to offset the steady unit slowdown, driving sales down to muted growth in 2026 compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n

Several factors are driving consumers to buy less, including cuts in SNAP<\/a> benefits and eligibility, climbing gas prices<\/a>, and GLP-1 usage, the report noted, with higher tax refunds this year helping keep consumers spending. Bain found that 80% of US consumers say they are aiming to spend less, with 28% specifically cutting back on grocery spend. Of those trimming their grocery bills, 56% are shifting to lower-priced options, while 49% are buying less altogether.<\/p>\n

PepsiCo, General Mills, Kroger, and Walmart<\/a> are among brands and retailers that have recently slashed prices<\/a> in hopes of jumpstarting lackluster unit sales. This month, Giant Eagle\u2014just days after it announced a$1.65 billion deal<\/a> to be acquired by Kroger\u2014said it was temporarily cutting prices by about 10% across 300+ items through Labor Day.<\/p>\n

But Kurt Grichel, head of Bain & Company\u2019s Americas Retail practice and co-author of the report, said in a statement that the solution to sinking unit sales isn\u2019t simply offering lower prices, noting retailers must present \u201ca value story that shoppers believe in and come back for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grocers and manufacturers that invest now in sharpening that proposition will be positioned to take meaningful share once the broader, market-wide conditions affected by inflation, including from gas prices, eventually shift,\u201d Grichel said. \u201cRetailers that respond with precision\u2014on assortment, promotion, and private label<\/a>\u2014will be best placed to capture the trips that are still up for grabs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know<\/p>\n

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food and beverage brands\u2019 efforts to get consumers to buy more haven\u2019t quite been bearing fruit so far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-822258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}