Stocking up and stocking out: Food retail stock-outs, consumer demand, and prices during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

Monitoring food retail stock-outs or the unplanned unavailability of certain food items for purchase assists policymakers in responding to food supply chain disruptions. This study focuses on identifying food stock-outs using store-level scanner data on US grocery store sales during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The total median stock-out rates of fixed-weight items increased by approximately 130% after March 15, 2020. Categories such as meat and poultry products, some convenience and frozen foods, baby formula, and carbonated beverages had the highest stock-out rates. The analysis also explores the relationship between stock-out rates, sales increases, and food prices during the pandemic. Published 2023. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

COVID-19 working paper: the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food-away-from-home spending. (COVID-19 Working Paper No. AP-100.)

This paper summarizes national changes in the frequency and dollar amount of U.S. consumers' food-away-from-home (FAFH) purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis draws on frequently updated proprietary data sources to measure national FAFH trends in average monthly spending and the weekly changes in store transactions. Both spending and transactions at restaurants substantially fell following the onset of the pandemic and have remained below pre-pandemic levels more than 1 year later. Differences in the decline in spending and transactions across restaurant types and mealtimes are notable. Although restaurant restrictions are loosening across the country in the first half of 2021, visits and spending have been slow to recover to their pre-pandemic levels.