Nielsen’s latest weekly U.S. off-premise data for the week ended March 21 showed huge double digit increases vs. one year ago (+55%), but also very significant increases vs. the prior week ending 3/14/20 (+28%). Note: All data below compares the one-week period ending March 21, 2020 to the same week one year ago.
The magnitude of the year-over-year increase was largest for spirits (+75%), followed by wine (+66%) and beer/FMB/cider (+42%). Sales of beer (excluding FMB/ciders) are up 34%.
Within spirits, tequila is +90%, gin is +89% and ready-to-drink cocktails are +106%.
For beer, growth rates of large pack sizes continue to outpace small pack sizes, with 24-packs up 90% and 30-packs up 87%. Comparatively, 12 packs were up 61% and 6 packs were up 16%.