Food & Beverage

Ice cream sales in no danger of melting away

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June 16, 2021

Ice cream sales after Memorial Day Weekend were up 74% over the same period in 2020, according to Paytronix Systems Inc., which found that the weekend's daily average sales jumped to 140% of the 2021 daily average. Things weren't so sweet a year ago, however, when sales over the same period sat at just a 123% of the daily average, a significant melting from 2019 sales.

"It's typical to see bigger ice cream sales in the summer, but we didn't see the same holiday weekend boost last year as consumers were exercising precautions due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Lee Barnes, director of Paytronix Data Insights, said in a company press release. "Data from this year suggests consumers are ready to take advantage of this summer as restrictions are lifted, including visiting their favorite restaurants, and, of course, enjoying some ice cream."

The projections — which came from Paytronix transactional data from more than 12 ice cream clients on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays between Jan. 1, 2018 and May 31, 2021 — also predicted that if 2021 sales followed past years' trends, this summer would see sustained weekend ice cream sales at about 137% of the 2021 daily average between January and May.

Other finding included:

• The last year to see sustained summer sales this high was 2018, when weekend summer sales were also 137% of the daily average for the first half of the year.
• The boost in Memorial Day Weekend sales in 2020 was only 50% of the boost in sales seen over the same weekend in 2019.
• Sales on Saturday, Sunday and Monday throughout the summer of 2020 sat at about 129% of the daily average for the first half of the year, despite COVID-19 restrictions.

Based in Newton, Massachusetts, Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management solutions for restaurants and convenience stores.