Cookie and Cracker Manufacturers NAICS 311821

Mar 20, 2026 - Diverging Spending Patterns

• Rising income inequality is reshaping grocery spending patterns, Grocery Dive reports citing findings by NielsenIQ. Higher-income consumers are driving overall grocery growth and tend to spend more on fresh foods, while lower-income shoppers are under financial pressure and shifting spending toward shelf-stable products. For makers of key shelf-stable categories, including cookies and crackers, this divergence creates a mixed outlook. Lower-income consumers’ reliance on shelf-stable goods supports baseline demand. But with these shoppers cutting back on spending overall, including on some pantry staples, volume growth may decline. Meanwhile, higher-income consumers are allocating more spending to fresh categories, potentially reducing demand for packaged snacks in that segment. The result is a bifurcated market, where growth depends on effectively targeting value-conscious consumers while finding ways to remain relevant to higher-income shoppers. Manufacturers may need to adjust pricing, packaging, and marketing strategies to maintain sales across diverging consumer groups.
• Cookie and cracker prices rose less in September than prices for food in general, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) October 2025 report shows cookie prices rose 1.7% year over year and 0.2% month over month in September (the latest month for which data is available). That’s compared to a 3% YoY and 0.3% MoM rise for food prices overall. Cracker prices rose 2.1% compared to a year ago in September, less than for all food, but were up 1.5% versus August. Despite declining wheat prices, which recently hit five-year lows, prices of other ingredients, notably cocoa and spices that are impacted by tariffs, have risen. Also, wages for bakery workers are at near record highs: Their wage growth over the past three years was 17.2%, higher than overall private wage growth of 13.4%.

• Consumers across all income levels are cutting back on discretionary purchases, leading to weaker snack and adult-beverage sales, the interim CEO of Kroger Ron Sargent told The Wall Street Journal in September. Sargent said the pullback on spending is most pronounced among low- and middle-income households, with those consumers using more coupons, making smaller and more frequent trips to the store, and buying more private-label products. To keep its prices low, Kroger is absorbing higher costs even as wholesale food prices, including for cookies and crackers, continue to rise, Sargent told WSJ. In related news, spending growth by Hispanic households, which account for 15% of consumer spending, has stalled, according to a new report titled The State of Hispanic Spending. The report’s verified purchase data highlight growing financial caution among Hispanic consumers, driven by ongoing economic pressures and political uncertainty.
• Producer prices for cookie and cracker manufacturers reached a record high in November, rising 4.1% compared to a year ago, after posting a previous flat November-versus-November annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At retail, cookie prices rose 5.1% year over year in November, while cracker prices rose 3.8% over the same period, according to the November 2025 Consumer Price Index report from the Labor Department. Employment by cookie and cracker manufacturers was flat YoY in November, while average industry wages rose 4.9% over the same period to a new high of $23.44 per hour, BLS data show. Wages and producer prices were both at record high levels in September.