Demand for Spam, canned meats ‘on fire’ as relentless food inflation forces cash-strapped shoppers to scale back
Demand for cheap canned meats like Spam and Vienna Sausages is surging as cash-strapped shoppers look to stretch their paychecks in the face of relentless food inflation, according to US grocery executives.
Conagra — the conglomerate behind Duncan Hines, Hunt’s ketchup and Birds Eye — said this week its canned-meat portfolio which includes Armour Star Vienna Sausage and Manwich sloppy joes — “is on fire,” according to a Reuters report.
Miguel Garcia, who owns supermarkets in the Bronx under the Foodtown, Keyfood and Met Foodmarket brands, said his stores have started to showcase Spam, Libby’s Corned Beef and Chef Boyardee Spaghetti & Meatballs as sales have leaped 10%.
“Spam is a regular item again,” Garcia told The Post. “I’m selling them at a discount now because I’m buying more.”
The canned-meat frenzy comes as grocery prices have spiked 21% in the last three years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with Republicans blaming Bidenomics for sapping paychecks even as pandemic-era boosts to federal SNAP and WIC benefits have expired.
While the price increases have lately slowed, they haven’t reversed. In response, big food manufacturers from Kraft-Heinz to Coca-Cola have been dangling discounts.
In May, Conagra will introduce a new six-pack of chicken patties that will cost $6.99, the company said. In the meantime, it has been running smaller, more frequent price cuts, according to Chief Executive Sean Connolly.
“We might invest to get below a key price threshold,” Connolly told Reuters. It’s “a shallow discount but something to make it provocative and make it therefore more effective.”
Garcia said his stores have lately dropped the price on a 12-ounce can of Spam to $4.99 from $6, while Libby’s Corned Beef goes for $4.99, down from $6.99.
Although shoppers are buying more items, average ring-ups at the checkout line are lower as they focus on rock-bottom prices, according to Garcia.
“Our average sale was closer to $20 at the end of last year and now it’s about $15,” he said. “People are putting less expensive items in their carts.”
Elsewhere, grocery shoppers are resorting to eating peanut butter to get their protein fix or are filling up on starches and carbs, food executives told Reuters.
Sales of Conagra’s corn-based snack Andy Capp’s have been up by as much as 30%, while sunflower seed snacks like David Seeds “are doing spectacular,” Bob Nolan, a Conagra senior vice president told Reuters.
That’s not necessarily a good thing, according to Carlos Rodriguez, chief policy and operations officer at City Harvest, which distributes fresh food in New York City.
People struggling to make ends meet are buying “whatever is on the shelf that you can stretch longer and further to feed the many mouths that might be sitting around the table,” Rodriguez said.
They are “forgoing items you normally want, which is fresh nutritious food.”
In 2022, roughly one-third of black American households and 21% of white American households were considered low income — typically making roughly less than $35,000 per year, according to the latest available US census data.
“We expect reduced SNAP benefits will be a headwind,” Dollar Tree CEO Richard Dreiling said during a March 13 earnings call.
In February, Kelogg’s chief executive Gary Pilnick sparked outrage after suggesting that struggling Americans could eat cereal for dinner to help their strained budgets.
“The cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,” Pilnick said in an interview with CNBC. “Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now.”
Pilnick was quickly excoriated for the insensitive remark on social media.
“Anything @KelloggsUS can do to make more money off people during times of crisis. I wonder what their CEO is having for dinner? Smh… Price hiking all day without a care. Shame shame,” a user wrote to X.
