Food Gifting: United States

Food Gifting: United States

This report forecasts US food gifting retail spending in nominal US dollars for 2024-2028. Total retail spending is segmented by market in terms of consumer and corporate.

To illustrate historical trends, total retail spending and the various segments are provided in annual series from 2018 to 2023.

For this report, food gifts are defined as food items that are packaged in a way that is suitable for gifting. Food gifts must be purchased; a food item prepared at home and given to someone as a gift is not included.

Food gifts range from baskets of treats to eat while watching football to food gift baskets given to people on Christmas or birthdays. Food gifts can be purchased for any occasion or no occasion, for someone else or for oneself. While some food gifts, particularly assortments, may include beverages such as coffee or alcohol, those products as standalone gifts are excluded from this report (e.g., a single bottle of wine given as a gift and selected by the buyer). Food baskets refer to prepackaged assortments of foods and beverages, not consumer-assembled baskets of these items.

As applied to proprietary survey results, food gift purchasers are defined as adults age 18 and up who have purchased a food gift for themselves or for others in the past 12 months. In some cases, this group of food gift purchasers is further segmented to include only food gift purchasers who have purchased a food gift for others in the past 12 months. In other cases, this group is further segmented to include only food gift purchasers who have purchased a food gift for themselves in the past 12 months.

Via proprietary survey analysis, food gifting recipients are indirectly and directly assessed. Food gifting purchasers are asked a range of questions that shed light on recipients. Questions are also asked of gift recipients. For example, they are asked about which occasions for which they received food gifts and the type of food gifts they have received.

Food gift recipients are further segmented into those who have received a food gift in connection with their employment (a "business" food gift) and those who have received a food gift not in connection with their employment (a "personal" food gift). The latter group is calculated from all survey respondents, while the former group includes only respondents who are employed full time (30+ hours per week) or part time (<30 hours per week). This segmentation approach allows assessment of both "personal" and "business" food gifting.

A full outline of report items by page is available in the Table of Contents.

Related NAICS Codes:

• 311811 Retail Bakeries
• 424410 General Line Grocery Merchant Wholesalers
• 445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery (except Convenience) Stores
• 445120 Convenience Stores
• 445210 Meat Markets
• 445291 Baked Goods Stores
• 445292 Confectionery and Nut Stores
• 445299 All Other Specialty Food Stores
• 445310 Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
• 453220 Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Stores
• 454110 Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses
• 492210 Local Messengers and Local Delivery