Recent analysis shows that the potato category gives retailers untapped opportunities to drive additional customer engagement.
“Potatoes are a strong seller in their own right, but a deep dive into the data shows that best-in-class merchandising can help retailers win big in produce and beyond,” Kayla Vogel, senior global marketing manager at Potatoes USA, said in a news release.
“Potatoes have the highest household penetration of all vegetables and are purchased an average of 10 times per year,” Vogel said. “Their ability to bring stability to the produce department delivers subsequent sales for other items in and outside produce. As such, potatoes can be the accelerator to total produce and total store success.”
Potatoes represent 21% of all fresh vegetable pounds sold last year and are one of the few produce items outpacing the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in pounds sold, Vogel said.
According to recent Circana data based on U.S. year-over-year sales ending July 31, fresh potatoes generated 5.3% of all fresh produce sales and are the fourth-highest selling produce item. In addition, Circana data revealed potatoes earned 10.8% of all vegetable sales and are second behind tomatoes as the top-selling vegetable.
Vogel said fresh potatoes have the highest year-over-year growth rate of all produce items for the year ending July 31. Circana reports that fresh potato dollar sales increased 16.4% year over year, reaching $4.1 billion.
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Dollar sales are up 23.2% over two years, Circana figures show.
Fresh potatoes have been the top produce item in delivering new dollars over the past year, at an additional $572 million, according to Circana.
Vogel said that fresh potatoes also support retail with a strong promotional presence, according to the release.
“Fresh potatoes have an above-average share of dollars sold on promotions, at 35.6%, up 13.1% versus year-ago levels,” she said. “This is above the total produce department and vegetable aisle.”
Potatoes enjoy a high household penetration (85%), a high number of annual trips (10) and a nice dollar ring each trip ($4.04, up 14.8% year over year), Vogel said.
“As budgets tighten, people have remained loyal to potatoes,” she said. “That means a lot of opportunity to significantly move the needle through improved visibility, merchandising and cross-merchandising.
“If retailers can prompt half of their current potato buyers to make one additional potato purchase a year, this would generate an additional $220 million in sales,” Vogel added. “This means there is enormous mutual benefit for growers and retailers to drive visibility and engagement for the potato category.”
