Datasembly’s New Grocery Price Index Reveals Details of Dramatic Price Inflation Acceleration in Q3

Datasembly, the leading provider of real-time product pricing, promotions, and assortment data for retailers and CPG brands, today announced the launch of its Grocery Price Index, as well as grocery inflation trends across a number of markets with New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Detroit and Portland showing some of the largest recent increases within a few key grocery categories. The free tool is a culmination of the billions of pricing and product records that Datasembly collects daily from over 130,000 stores and more than 180 retail banners across the United States. Brands, retailers and consumers can all use the Grocery Price Index to uncover current, hyper-local pricing information and trends.

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“The pandemic brought an unprecedented amount of price volatility into the market, and now we are seeing a significant price inflation trend accelerating in Q3 of 2021—making the need for real-time competitive pricing intelligence more important than ever”

“The pandemic brought an unprecedented amount of price volatility into the market, and now we are seeing a significant price inflation trend accelerating in Q3 of 2021—making the need for real-time competitive pricing intelligence more important than ever,” said founder and CEO, Ben Reich. “The granular level of data about specific products and locations that Datasembly provides is a game changer for brands and retailers, helping them better understand pricing strategies, promotions, and assortment.”

Grocery Price Index Findings

Datasembly’s Grocery Price Index allows users to drill down to specific geographies, across 14 major categories, giving retailers and brands the most holistic look at the local competitive landscapes for the most valuable insights. The index can also be localized to see trends in 54 of the largest major metropolitan areas in the U.S., as well as by state.

Recent National Pricing Trends

There has been a dramatic change in the rate of grocery price inflation, starting in Q1 with an average monthly increase of .43%, to Q3 where the average monthly increase has nearly doubled to .83%. September, by far, has had the highest rate of monthly increase of the year at 1.18%. The Q3 increases alone surpass the USDA 20 year annual average.

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The overall price increase in Q3 was 2.28%, which was propelled by increases in:

• Beverages – 3.6% (caused by a 7% increase in the soda subcategory)
• Meat & Seafoods – 4.2% (caused by the bacon and sausage subcategories increasing 7% and 5%, respectively)
• Snacks, Cookies & Chips – 3.68% (caused by the chips subcategory increasing by 7%)

COVID Trends

Dough rolling. While baking was on the rise as more folks stayed home with more time on their hands, baking goods saw a steady increase of 2.5% before dropping back down another 2% in September 2020. Baking is seeing a rapid rise again with a steady increase starting at the end of June 2021.

Surf & Turf. The meat and seafood category crept up in the beginning of March 2020 and went up a full 3% in May/June and went back down 2% in September. Starting the end of May 2021, this category is seeing steady increases again.

Local Price Inflation Trends

Cities like New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Orlando, Tampa, Portland, and Seattle suffered the biggest price increases in the third quarter of 2021.

• Meat & seafood – In parts of Florida, prices of Meat & Seafood saw some of the highest increases in the third quarter of 2021, rising 6.7% in Tampa and 6.48% in Orlando. Starting from April 2021, prices of Meat & Seafood began rising again and in September 2021, are back to COVID highs. Prices have steadily increased in Detroit as well, going up to 6.2% in the third quarter.

• Snacks, Cookies & Chips – Prices during the third quarter increased at least 5% in Detroit (5.6%), Orlando (5.2%) and Tampa (5.85).

• Beverages – Beverages saw a big increase in the third quarter, with prices rising by 5.5% in Portland and 5.0% in Seattle.

• Deli Counter – In Philadelphia, the price of Deli goods shot up 5.4% but nationally, the price index for Deli hardly changed at all. In New York, Deli prices saw a sharp increase of 5.17% in the third quarter.

The Datasembly Grocery Price Index will be updated every week and is just the beginning of the detailed insights that are available using the Datasembly data. Data by specific retail banners and more granular category information are examples of what is possible leveraging the index.