2013 Consumer Expenditures Study: Deconstructing the Market Basket

Higher commodity prices and an ever-so-slight uptick in consumer spending pushed supermarket sales up roughly $15.2 billion to $459.2 billion in 2011, from 2010’s total of $444.0 billion. The consumer supermarket spending increase for 2011 netted a gain of 3.4 percent — the largest seen since 2008’s similar 3.2 percent increase, which is also noteworthy viewed against the identical 1.6 percent gain tabbed during both 2009 and 2010.