Campbell's Tomato Soup Sales Soar As Americans Prep For Home Quarantines
We're getting an unusually large amount of traffic to our posts featuring the price history of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup since January 1898 (original post here, updated through January 2020 here).
We suspect that's because Campbell Soups' (NYSE: CPB) sales are soaring as American shoppers are prepping to be shut in at home for a prolonged period of quarantine time thanks to the coronavirus epidemic officially becoming a global pandemic.
Still, we recognize our role in satisfying consumer demand for information, so here's the latest update to our chart showing the entire price history of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup, which now spans from January 1898 through March 2020, where we find the trailing twelve month average price American consumers have paid for an iconic 10.75 ounce can of the soup is $0.86 as of March 2020:
(Click on image to enlarge)
But that trailing year average price isn't necessarily what you would pay today, with tomato soup in high demand as we are still in prime soup season. The sale price we found for March 2020 comes from supermarket chain Albertson's, who has cans of Campbell's tomato soup on sale for $0.88.
That's down from the $1.00 per can sale prices that American consumers recently paid at supermarkets Holiday Farms and ACME in both January and February 2020, which makes sense since soup sales are typically higher with colder weather. Although the weather is now getting warmer, the coronavirus pandemic could increase sales and result in higher prices if demand increases faster than supply.
Fortunately, Campbell Soups is responding to the sudden increase in sales by speeding up its orders of ingredients, which should help supply keep pace with demand.
But honestly, the most disturbing thing about Campbell's tomato soup sales are the demographics, where Campbell's report that America's iconic soup has become very popular with millennials, who are mostly known for killing products favored by generations of older Americans:
“Not only are we attracting new households, we are attracting younger households, which bodes well for the future,” Clouse said, according to a FactSet transcript of the company’s Wednesday morning earnings call.
“In particular, on tomato soup, a good percentage of the gains came from millennials households. Frankly this is a trend that many did not think was possible.”
Almost as scary as facing the zombie apocalypse, which presents a whole different way of considering the true value of a can of tomato soup!
We should also note Campbell Soups' tomato soup sales are also benefiting from the company's recent television commercials for tomato soup, which have been airing this past winter.
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