Compared to 2019, value velocity is also +30% higher with the average outlet making $10,825 (vs $8,302 in 2019), NielsenIQ said. This is largely due to higher average check values, as whilst there were +5% more tickets over the day, average check value was up from $35 to $43 – a +24% increase.
Core beer (excludes FMBs, cider, and seltzers) grew slightly in dollars compared to 2019, up 1.9%. The biggest gainers in core beer were imports, driven by Mexican import brands (+17.3%), super-premium beers (+10.7%), and craft (+4.1%). For this key beer-drinking holiday, the biggest losses came from below premium (-11.4%), premium light (-5.3%), and premium regular (-4.8%), Nielsen reports.
Most of the biggest gains in the category came from “beyond beer” segments, with hard seltzers as the leader in actual dollar change, up 297% compared to 2019 sales and up 10.7% compared to 2020 Memorial Day sales.
Last year at this time, hard seltzers were inching up to 10% dollar share of the category (9.8%). For Memorial Day 2021, hard seltzers reached close to 12% share, accounting for 11.7% of total off-premise category dollars. To put this into perspective, this is the same dollar share for craft beer in NielsenIQ off-premise channels for Memorial Day weeks. While hard seltzer sales have most certainly slowed over the past few months, it remains one of the few segments to surpass 2020 dollar sales, which is an indicator that hard seltzers will once again be a staple for off-premise drinking occasions this summer.
Other beyond beer segments to experience strong gains compared to 2019 include FMBs (+4.3%), hard kombucha (+232%), and hard tea (+59%). Most of these segments also grew in dollars compared to last year’s sales, with FMBs as the exception (-11.7%), but strong growth from hard kombucha (+32.4%) and hard tea (+18.2%).
The top 5 brands in the category for the two weeks ending June 5 were Bud Light, Modelo Especial, Mich Ultra, Coors Light, and Corona Extra. All but one brand are falling behind off-premise Memorial Day sales of 2020. The top growth brand extensions for Memorial Day are a sea of seltzers, with 9 of the top 10 representing hard seltzer brands or flavor extensions launched this year. Twisted Tea is the only non-seltzer brand among the top 10 growth brands.
Spirits
For Memorial Day 2021, nearly every category in spirits is in decline compared to Memorial Day 2020 off-premise sales. (Nielsen noted, however, that 2020 was an unusual year and therefore it is focused more on changes from 2019.) Compared to Memorial Day 2019, nearly every spirits category is up, and in most cases, up strong double digits. Whiskey was the strongest overall contributor to dollar growth, up 28%, followed by tequila, up 87%. Tequila even surpassed 2020 Memorial Day sales, up 3.9% compared to last year.
Ready-to-drink cocktails continue to skyrocket, with sales up 496% compared to 2019 and up 111% compared to 2020. RTD cocktails experienced the strongest dollar share gains of any spirits category for Memorial Day, up 2 share points compared to last year. RTD spirits reached 3.7% of total spirits dollars for the two-week time period, surpassing dollar sales for gin in NielsenIQ off-premise channels.
Wine
For the two weeks ending June 5, nearly all segments of wine are down compared to Memorial Day in 2020. But compared to the two weeks ending June 1, 2019, in off-premise channels, total wine is up 14.3%, with sparkling wine leading growth, up 38.6% and table wine up 7.1%. French champagne was a big growth driver, up 87% vs 2019 and up 23.9% compared to 2020.
“Remember that French champagne started to spike in dollar growth around this time last year, so we are beginning to lap strong growth rates from last year, and even so, the segment continues to experience double-digit growth,” Nielsen said. (For Memorial Day last year, French champagne grew 51% compared to the prior year in off-premise channels).
Wine-based cocktails continue their surge, up 47% compared to last year, and up 247% compared to 2 years ago. Other growth segments include flavored wine, up 16.4% vs year ago and up 86% vs 2 years ago, and non-alcoholic wine, while still very small, has nearly doubled in size in the past two years, up 88% compared to Memorial Day 2019.
As sales for nearly all wine segments in off-premise channels are still far above norms, particularly compared to 2019, it is helpful to look at share shifts to better understand which segments have the strongest performance across wine.
Compared to Memorial Day 2019, table wine lost 5.3 dollar share points, with sparkling picking up 2.0 share points (French champagne gained 1.2 points), flavored wine gaining 1.2 share points, and wine cocktails up 2.2 share points. All segments that are gaining share also tend to be segments that appeal to younger legal-drinking age consumers.
Longer-term, this could be beneficial to the wine industry by engaging younger Millennials and Gen Zers through non-traditional wine segments like flavored wines and cocktails, and then grow into table wine, Nielsen suggested.