National Retail Report - Nov. 7

From the USDA's National Retail report of Nov. 7:


Retailers fully shifted their attention and efforts to the upcoming holiday season this week. The majority of retailers were advertising Thanksgiving promotions in a variety of ways. In many ads, meats took up the bulk of front page ad space. There were many value promotions, such as “10 for $10” and stock up sales on canned good prominently placed. Ads on seasonally available and locally grown items continued to be a fixture in the produce section. These included a wide variety of apples, pears, and squash. Items typically associated with the holiday season (cranberries, chestnuts, and pomegranates) were also noted often. Overall this week, fresh produce ads increased nearly 8%. Vegetable ad activity was up slightly more than 15% compared to last week with the most notable increases on zucchini and green beans. Fruit was virtually unchanged. The top 5 featured items were: grapes, pears, asparagus, avocados, and apples. Other notable items this week included navel oranges and russet potatoes. The first of California’s navel crop began showing up in ads and could be seen by the dramatic increase in the number of ads of them sold by the pound. Russet potatoes sold by the pound and in 10 lb bags increased significantly as well this week.