Consumer Food Buying during a Recession

Abstract

Introduction COVID-19 caused significant disruptions in food supply chains and altered consumer buying behavior. The impacts of COVID-19, most notably in the restaurant and food service sectors, are still being realized in food markets months after the initial shutdown. COVID-19 is a unique event with idiosyncratic effects on food consumption. Nonetheless, there are likely longer-term effects of the pandemic that are perhaps more predictable. The pandemic has caused a recession and spike in unemployment during the first quarter of 2020 (NBER, 2021), and there is much that has been learned about consumer food spending and buying behaviors during prior economic downturns that can be leveraged to gain insights about consumer food spending during the pandemic.