Football season food evokes imagery of high-fiving over BBQ wings, brats, and burgers. Tailgating has become an elevated art, as has hosting watch parties for televised games. As the 2024 season kicks off, fans are embracing new food trends alongside traditional tailgating favorites. Based on emerging data, game day food habits include the standard fare, but are also evolving to accommodate diverse dietary needs and flavor profiles.
AWG members should be aware of trends we’re seeing on social media, such as time-saving, convenient tailgate party packs that include game-day decorations for watch parties. Showing off new recipes remains a bragging right, especially when cooks elevate comfort food recipes, like adding truffle oil to mac & cheese. Regional favorites are always a hit. After all, isn’t gumbo a requirement during an LSU game? Guests like to “game” their food too, as seen in alcohol and food pairings and interactive food stations like taco and baked potato bars. Ensuring your grocery store supports this important sporting theme by cheering on local favorites and stocking plenty of localized, globalized, and on-trend food choices will capture your shoppers’ attention.
Using the Super Bowl as an indicator, there are key categories that are at the top of most shoppers’ lists. Disposable tableware, carbonated beverages, beer / wine / spirits (with pre-mixed cocktails trending), and ice tend to be necessities for any gathering. Meats also see a spike in sales, but frozen chicken cuts tend to bring the most incremental lift. For example, during the week before Super Bowl 2023, fresh shellfish sales rose 77% and frozen chicken +81% compared to an average week. Sauces, deli appetizers and trays all showed lifts in excess of 25%. During this same week, all food categories experienced a 24% lift in sales volume.
Be sure the deli is ready to meet shoppers’ demands. Key competitors to grocers are quick-serve restaurants and those offering delivery. Pizza restaurants see a 7% lift to sales during Super Bowl week and 83% of restaurant foods are take out. Pizza and wings are the mainstay, which mirror the menu of many grocery delis. Drive traffic and secure shoppers’ dollars by offering compelling deli choices, from trays and sides to hot ready-to-eat entrees and snacks.For more information regarding these insights and more, see Circana’s thought leadership reports: https://www.circana.com/intelligence/category/reports/