Week One of April Flips the Script
Remember how March ended on that huge upswing in sales, mostly due to Easter? The first week of April doesn’t. Independent grocers are reporting that their same store sales were down 7.46 percent and customer counts were down 5.89 percent. 2018 April Week one sales were down below their weekly average this year and 2017 April Week one sales were far greater than their weekly average, causing the ugly sales figure. Easter has yet another week to influence sales, then we can expect some leveling out.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its March consumer price index report last week, which showed that the rate of food at home inflation has continued to slow since January. While food at home prices did increase 0.4 percent in the month of March, the 12 month period shows just a 0.38 percent increase in prices.
During the month of March, sub categories of food at home that increased in price were meat/poultry/fish/eggs (+0.8 percent), cereal/bakery (+0.4 percent), nonalcoholic beverages (+0.4 percent), and dairy (+0.3 percent).
On the flip side, fruits and vegetables declined 0.7 percent and other dropped 0.2 percent.
The index for all items decreased 0.1 percent in March, mainly due to falling energy costs. In the past 12 months, all items have increased 2.4 percent.