WASHINGTON D.C. – The retail grocers who sell finished agricultural products like beef and eggs to consumers have had a rough time during COVID-19.
Greg Ferrara is the President and CEO of the National Grocers Association, and says their stores saw unprecedented demand levels ramping up in March that were very hard to keep up with.
He adds while they aren’t at those levels currently, grocery stores are still seeing higher than normal demand levels for this time of year.
“As things have progressed, we’ve seen that demand, that stock-up initial demand, kind of reduce some. However, we are still having members that are reporting same-store sales that are up anywhere from five to 30 percent over the same time last year, so, effectively for our retailers, it’s like having the demand right around the peak of Thanksgiving or the peak of Christmas weeks every single day.”
Ferrara says one positive thing to come out of the last several months is consumers are a lot more cognizant about where their food comes from.
He says they “aren’t entirely out of the woods yet,” but they’re taking some of the lessons they learned to make things up and down the grocery store supply chain more efficient in the future.
