September 11 Affected Grocery Buying Dramatically
for Some Categories. Consumers Stocked Up on
Powdered Milk, Bottled Water, Batteries, Peanut Butter.

Grocery dollar growth in supermarkets picked up following Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Sales of some emergency-related goods jumped following the attacks on New York and Washington, suggesting consumers sought to stock up on longer-lasting foods and stockpiled items like batteries and flashlights. Sales of some cosmetic and hair care products dropped off following attacks. AC Nielsen perspective. ACNielsen executive: "Intuitively, it makes sense that we were seeing stock-ups" on non-perishable "survival" items. Adds: "Health and beauty aids went down that week (ending Sept. 15) ... Speculation would be that it's about priorities ... Those items were less important" to consumers in wake of attacks.

Overall channel. Data from ACNielsen shows overall grocery dollars were up +5.5% in week of Sept. 1 vs comparable period in 2000 and up +4.6% in week ending Sept. 8. Then grocery dollar volume jumped +7.1% in week of attacks, ending Sept. 15. Volume was up +6.5% in week following attack, ending Sept. 22; and up +6.2% in week ending Sept. 29. For week ending Oct. 6, dollar volume was up +4.4%, suggesting a return to normal trends.

Table. Shows weekly dollar percent changes vs comparable 2000 periods for a variety of beverage, food and non-food categories. Data from ACNielsen, covers $2+ mil supermarkets.

Details. CSD and beer during week ending Sept. 15 were below growth in previous two weeks, but both showed uptick in week ending Sept. 29, perhaps indicating restocking of pantries. Growth of bottled water, refrigerated milk, powdered milk and shelf-stable milk (products like Parmalat) surged in days and weeks following attacks.

Beyond beverages. Also heavily bought: peanut butter, jelly and canned soup, with growth rates returning to post-attack levels in early October. Non-food "survival" items like batteries, flashlights and candles also saw volume growth spikes following Sept. 11. In contrast, volume for items like cosmetics, hair care products, film and vitamins slowed or declined in days and weeks after attacks, picking up somewhat in first week of October.