Consumers counting on cereal: Sales stay strong despite reined in budgets

摘要

As consumers continue to battle budgets during a tough economic time, ready-to-eat cereal is finding its way into a growing number of shopping carts at supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandisers. Cereal's reputation as an affordable and convenient, yet healthy, food option has served it well over the past year. In the 52 weeks ended March 22, dollar sales of ready-to-eat (R.-T.-E.) cereal totaled 6,598,820,000, dollar according to Information Resources, Inc., a Chicago-based market research firm. That total was up 3% from the same period a year earlier, in part reflecting price hikes undertaken by many of the nation's top cereal manufacturers to offset rising input costs. More encouraging for the cereal industry, though, was the fact I.R.I. data also showed R.-T.-E. cereal unit sales have risen year over year, climbing a shade less than 1% to 2,197,647,000.