Specialty Food Stores NAICS 4452

May 13, 2025 - Organic Outperforms

• US sales of certified organic products accelerated in 2024 with an annual growth rate of 5.2%, more than double that of the overall marketplace, which grew at 2.5% over the same period, according to the 2025 Organic Market Report released by the Organic Trade Association. Dollar sales hit a new high of $71.6 billion, with organic food sales totaling $65.4 billion and sales of organic nonfood products at $6.2 billion. As food price inflation moderated last year, the gap between conventional and organic prices across categories including grocery and dairy narrowed, making shoppers more likely to buy organic, according to OTA. Organic produce held on to the top spot, accounting for 30.1% of total organic sales with a growth rate of 5.2% for the year. Organic berry sales rose 10.3%, while sales of organic bananas climbed 15.5%.
• A new mobile app is influencing consumers’ purchasing habits, The Wall Street Journal reports. The app, called Yuka, launched in France in 2017 and arrived in the US in 2020. It enables users to scan food product bar codes and scores them on a scale of one to 100 based on nutritional quality, additives, and whether the item is organic. Yuka and other food-scanning apps are changing what products grocers sell and consumers buy, and prompting some manufacturers to reformulate products to boost scores. According to Yuka’s CEO, nearly one-third of its 68 million users are in the US and an average of 25,000 new US users have joined daily since the start of the year, WSJ reports. Adoption of these apps is being fueled by the same skepticism toward food ingredients, companies, and regulators shared by HHS Secretary RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, per WSJ.

• Record high prices for products like ground beef and steak drove meat department sales to a record $104.6 billion in 2024, making meat the largest perimeter department in grocery stores, according to The Food Association’s latest Power of Meat report. Dollar sales growth was driven by drought, high grain prices and interest rates that drove producer prices to record highs last year. Still, shoppers remained resilient, with nearly all (96%) of shoppers surveyed saying they are open to spending more on meat and poultry, especially during special occasions and holidays, per FMI. In 2024, annual average spend per household on meat and poultry was $871, while the average number of times US shoppers purchased meat rose 4% from 2023. Fresh meat outperformed processed meat sales last year and stood out with “above-average gains,” per FMI’s report.
• Employment by specialty food retailers grew 1.1% in January compared to a year ago while average industry wages rose 5.3% over the same period to $19.12 per hour, $0.07 shy of their peak in October, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Sales at food and beverage stores were up nearly 5% year over year in January but sank 7.6% from December, a peak selling period for specialty foods, Census Bureau data shows. Looking ahead, sales for the US specialty food stores industry are forecast to grow at a 2.81% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to a new forecast by the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.