Uri Goldberg shares an interesting post that looks back to 2020 and the shift in demand and price of peanuts during times of crises.
Peanut butter has a long history of reflecting the state of the US economy and changes in consumer preferences. During WWI, the home front was asked to reduce wheat, beef and other staple consumption to allow these products to be shipped to the troops. Soon after, wartime cooking articles promoted the use of peanut butter to supplement the civilian diet. During the great recession, again, peanut butter consumption skyrocketed, as Americans already had experience replacing expensive items like meat and dairy with lower cost staples. Since then, we have seen a noticeable shift in demand and price of peanuts during all major economic events in the past century.
Similar to past trends, the global price of peanuts has increased by nearly 12% since the beginning of 2020, outpacing other major commodities such as rice, wheat, oats and potatoes. The same increase is reflected online, where peanut butter searches and conversions volume doubled in April as the US issued new health guidelines to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic putting the economy in a downwards spiral.
Thanks to social analytics tools, we can now see not only changes in demand, but also changes in preferences and consumer concerns. Analyzing online conversations, we can see 3 noticeable consumer concerns:
Consumers continue to be health conscious
Growth in comments – a sales indicator – about all-natural, organic and no-sugar added products outpaced traditional products. This growth comes despite these products being at least 25% more expensive, indicating a real shift in consumer preferences. As user Hudson.L noted, “Being stuck in quarantine sucks especially when all you have is junk food. Having a product like allows my snacks or meals to be different almost every single time with a healthy add on.”
Key points include:
- Product availability
- Health conscious consumers
- Price and value
Read the full article, What can peanut butter tell us about the state of the US consumer, on LinkedIn.