SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—A new Nielson Company survey of more than 28,000 U.S. households reveals 9 out of 10 will watch Super Bowl XLIV at home or at a friend’s house instead of a restaurant or bar, and 86 percent plan to spend the same amount or less on food and beverages, while only 5 percent plan to spend more.
“At-home viewing of the Super Bowl is predominantly more of an opportunity for grocery stores, rather than other CPG retailers,” said Nick Lake, vice president, group client director, Beverage Alcohol at Nielsen. “Today’s consumers want value but also want convenience. We see the lowest amount of beer sales during the first quarter of the year leading up to a peak in the summer,” said Lake. “However, the Super Bowl continues to be a bigger and bigger event where consumers drink billions of servings of beer servings at home. Beer marketers are taking advantage of that opportunity to drive sales during what is typically a slower period for beer purchases.”
Nielsen’s analysis shows that with the exception of late March, grocery retailers experienced the biggest weeks for Q1 beer sales during the two weeks surrounding Super Bowl 2009, with nearly 17 million cases1 sold.
Super Bowl viewers across the country stock their at-home parties with snacks, nearly 166 million pounds of snacks, especially salty snacks. Potato chips reign, with more than 44 million pounds of snacks sold while tortilla chips and pretzels also rank high for sales. Consumers in the “new normal” are trying private label or store brand items more than ever before and this trend holds true for snack items with private label snacks gaining ground. For example, during the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl in 2007, private-label snacks held a dollar share of 6.8 and an equivalized share of 10.4. During the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl in 2009, this jumped to a dollar share of 8.1 and an equivalized share of 12.5.