Bagels are available in several areas within the supermarket, from frozen foods to the commercial aisle to the in-store bakery. They continue to be a popular grab-and-go option for the morning commute or for breakfast at home.
The bagel category includes assorted/variety, regular, gourmet/large, mini/bite/chunk and other bagels. The national average bagel contribution to total in-store bakery sales was 3 percent in the latest 52 weeks ending April 24, 2010, which remained steady from the previous year. Nationally, bagels averaged $292 per store per week, a 3.9 percent increase from the previous year. From 2005 to 2009, bagels increased dollar sales by 15 percent on a per-week per-store basis.
Weekly dollar sales for bagels varied throughout the year. The category saw its highest sales nationally the week of Jan. 16, 2010, with $309 dollars per store per week and 12 percent growth from the previous year. This peak in sales could have been the product of promotional efforts. Another significant week for bagels was the week of Aug. 15, 2009, when dollar sales averaged $307 per week per store, giving bagels 9.6 percent growth compared to the previous year. Bagels saw their lowest sales per week per store during the week of April 10, 2010, with $266 per store. This corresponds to the week following Easter, which historically registers a drop.
Average bagel category weekly dollar sales varied by region compared to the previous year. The East region had the highest average dollar sales, with $673 per store per week, which was up 3.9 percent and was more than double the national average. The East region also had the largest bagel dollar contribution to the department at 4.9 percent. Among the breakfast categories, the East region typically sells more bagels and muffins compared to other regions, whereas in the Central region, consumers tend to purchase more donuts. The West region had weekly sales of $332 per store and demonstrated the largest dollar growth, up 8.3 percent. The Central region demonstrated the largest decrease in bagel sales compared to the remaining regions, down 1.5 percent from the previous year. The South region, traditionally strong in breakfast bakery sweetgoods, also decreased in bagel sales, recording a drop of 0.8 percent to $139 per week per store.
When examining the bagel growth trend from the West and East regions, the largest growth appeared from the regular bagel subcategory, up 61 percent and 17.1 percent respectively. Most of this growth was seen from unique flavor offerings, as well as newly introduced multigrain bagels.
Within the bagel category, assorted/variety bagels accounted for 53.1 percent of category sales nationally for the latest 52 weeks ending April 24, 2010, followed by regular bagels at 31.2 percent and gourmet/large bagels at 12.2 percent. The smaller subcategory contributions included mini/bite/chunk bagels (2.2 percent) and other bagels (1.3 percent).
This sales review, provided by the Perishables Group FreshFacts® powered by Nielsen, includes supermarket in-store bakery scanner data results from the 52 weeks of May 2, 2009, through April 24, 2010, representing more than 63 percent of the national supermarket ACV share. For more information, contact the Perishables Group's Kelli Beckel by phone: 773/929-7013, or e-mail: KelliB@perishablesgroup.com.