Documentation

Note: The Federal COVID-19 public health emergency declaration ended on May 11, 2023. Updates to this data product are discontinued .

The Weekly Retail Food Sales data are obtained from Circana (formerly Information Resources Inc. [IRI]) and are based on the Circana OmniMarket Core Outlets (formerly InfoScan) proprietary data product. OmniMarket Core Outlets data are retailer point-of-sale records of consumer food purchases collected from retail food stores. Retailers collect weekly revenues and quantities of each UPC (Universal Product Code) sold by store. The dataset includes detailed information for both packaged food and random weight fresh food. See Using Proprietary Data for more information on OmniMarket Core Outlets.

The Weekly Retail Food Sales data are aggregated to food group levels and aggregated to be representative at the national and State levels. USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) receives the data with a 2-week lag from the collection date and updates two publicly available files: “Weekly Retail Food Sales by Product Category and State” and “Weekly Retail Food Sales by Product Sub-category.” Weekly Retail Food Sales Data are nationally representative; for more information on projection methodology see Sample Based Estimates by Circana.

Note that the series is subject to revision based on periodic adjustments in methodology underlying the proprietary data from Circana.

The Weekly Retail Food Sales data differ from the historical retail scanner data ERS also acquired from Circana for 2008–20. The historical scanner data provide store-level and retail marketing area level weekly sales data for individual products disaggregated to UPC codes.

Aggregation of food items

Food items are aggregated to product subcategories and categories using the classification system developed for the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database (see Technical Bulletin 1926, Methodology Behind the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database). The classification system distinguishes food categories by their role in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Categories and subcategories include:

Alcohol
Beverages
Water
Carbonated non-alcoholic
Fruit drinks and non-carbonated sugary
Other
Commercially prepared foods
Not sweet canned (soups, sauces, etc.)
Not sweet frozen (pizzas, french fries, fish sticks, and entrees)
Not sweet packaged/meals and sides
Not sweet packaged/snacks
Not sweet ready-to-eat (hot and cold deli items)
Sweet frozen (ice cream, frozen desserts)
Sweet mixes (pancake, muffin, and cake mixes)
Sweet packaged (cookies, candy bars, granola bars, and other sweet bars)
Sweet ready-to-eat (bakery items)
Dairy
Cheese
Low-fat milk
Regular-fat milk
Yogurt and other
Fats and oils
Oils
Solids
Fruit
Fruit juice
Whole canned
Whole fresh/frozen
Grains
Packaged (bread, rolls, pita, tortilla, rice, pasta, cereal)
Flour and mixes
Frozen/ready to cook
Other
Meats, eggs, and nuts (protein foods)
Poultry fresh/frozen
Regular meat canned
Regular meat fresh/frozen
Eggs
Fish canned
Fish fresh/frozen
Low-fat meat fresh/frozen
Nuts and seeds processed/nut butters
Nuts and seeds raw
Other
Sugar and sweeteners
Vegetables
Dark green canned (e.g., collard greens, spinach)
Dark green fresh/frozen (e.g., collard greens, broccoli, kale, spinach)
Legumes canned (e.g., black beans, garbanzo beans, lentils)
Legumes fresh/frozen (e.g., black beans, garbanzo beans, lentils)
Orange canned (e.g., carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin)
Orange fresh/frozen (e.g., carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, acorn squash)
Starchy canned (e.g., potatoes, peas, corn)
Starchy fresh/frozen (e.g., potatoes, peas, corn)
Other-nutrient-dense canned (e.g., tomatoes)
Other-nutrient-dense fresh/frozen (e.g., tomatoes, cabbage, avocado)
Other-mostly water canned (e.g., green beans, mushrooms, beets)
Other-mostly water fresh/frozen (e.g., green beans, mushrooms, cucumbers, iceberg lettuce, onions)
Other

Data include the following variables (unless otherwise noted, variables are included in both files):

Date
State (State file only)
Category
Subcategory (national file only)
Dollars—total value of sales
Dollars last year—total value of sales, same week last year
Dollars 3 years ago—total value of sales, same week 3 years ago (available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)
Unit sales—total units sold, any size
Unit sales last year—total units sold, any size, same week last year
Unit sales 3 years ago—total units sold, any size, same week 3 years ago (available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)
Volume sales—total volume sold in equivalent units (removed from data – see note below for details)
Volume sales last year—total volume sold in equivalent units, same week last year (removed from data – see note below for details)
Volume sales 3 years ago—total volume sold in equivalent units, same week 3 years ago (removed from data – see note below for details)
Share—category share of total dollar sales (national file only)
Share last year—category share of total dollar sales, same week last year (national file only)
Share 3 years ago-- category share of total dollar sales, same week 3 years ago (national file only; available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)
Percent change dollars 1 year—change in sales value since same week last year, as a percent of last year’s sales value
Percent change units 1 year—change in units sold of any size since same week last year, as a percent of last year’s units sold
Percent change volume 1 year—change in volume since same week last year, as a percent of last year’s volume (removed from data – see note below for details)
Percent change share 1 year—change in share since same week last year, as a percent of last year’s share (national file only)
Percent change dollars 3 years—change in sales value since same week 3 years ago, as a percent of sales value 3 years ago (available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)
Percent change units 3 years —change in units sold of any size since same week 3 years ago, as a percent of units sold 3 years ago (available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)
Percent change volume 3 years —change in volume since same week 3 years ago, as a percent of volume 3 years ago (removed from data – see note below for details)
Percent change share 3 years —change in share since same week 3 years ago, as a percent of share 3 years ago (national file only; available starting May 2022 with data beginning October 3, 2021)

Note: On July 7, 2023, the volume sales data were removed due to errors in converting some unit values to volumes. They will not be restored due to the complexity of the data.