Meat realized tremendous growth last year — and so far this year — as Americans appreciate the value and convenience of preparing meat at home. If the operators of fresh seafood departments take some merchandising and marketing tactics from the success of meat, they can realize incremental sales growth this year.
Meat sales hit a record high of $104.6 billion in 2024, while pounds sold increased 2.3% compared to 2023, according to FMI’s Power of Meat report. And meat sales hiked 8.4% while volume increased 3.8% for the 13 weeks ending March 23, according to Circana, while fresh seafood sales rose slightly by 1.3% and volume fell 1.5% during the same quarter.
Increasing seafood in self-service cases, offering more prepared seafood meals and increasing promotional frequency are among the tactics that will help grow sales, according to experts.
“There is still a barrier for consumers to go to the seafood counter. We force people to go as they’re shopping the meat department: the fish is over there. So one, they have to have the awareness that they are going to put it in there and two, you want it staffed or at least easily accessible,” said Chris Dubois, executive vice president, protein practice leader at Circana, at the Circana Growth Summit in Orlando in April.
Fresh seafood behind the glass “always looks scary,” is not very approachable, and may not be staffed, DuBois added.
“You are asking the consumer to walk down and find a butcher [to help them]. It is a burden on the consumer,” he said.
Consumers generally buy seven to 10 different cuts of meat and make a decision about whether they will purchase an item in seven to 17 seconds, DuBois explained.
“Seafood needs to get on this list.”
Make it accessible
The solution is taking seafood out from behind the seafood counter and moving it to self-service cases with a variety of prepared options, DuBois advised.
“It’s trying to make it more accessible and easily prepared. We are still too commodity based — here is the fish on ice. The more we can prepare it and make it easier, you are going to see better sales. People want really strong convenience with less than 30 minutes of total time, and want restaurant meals at home.”
Self-service seafood displays are a “critical component” to increase volume and sales, agreed Jason Resner, president of DNR Sales & Marketing Strategy Advisors.
Likewise, Joseph Sabbagh, president of Sax Maritime Associates, said the days of large “fresh” seafood cases are over for 90% of the 65,000-plus grocery stores across the US. Instead, those stores can increase their frozen, pre-packed and skin pack programs, similar to Aldi and Trader Joe’s merchandising, Sabbagh said.
In fact, Costco and Aldi are among the retailers doing a great job displaying fresh packaged salmon and other seafood in self-service cases, according to DuBois. They have committed to offering accessible, quality products at a price point that is resonating with shoppers, he explained.
Anne Marie Roerink, principal at 210 Analytics, which conducted the Power of Meat report published by the Annual Meat Conference, agrees that seafood needs to move out from behind the seafood counter. Because seafood is purchased far less frequently than meat, seafood needs to be more visible — including promotions, social media, secondary displays, deli prepared and more, she said.
Retailers with limited self-service display space should lean towards salmon fillets — not necessarily value-added items such as marinated or stuffed, just plain salmon fillets, Resner said.
“The overall majority will pick up a salmon fillet versus a value-added item due to the overall acceptance of salmon versus a marinaded or ingredient that might not appeal to all customers.”
“The focus should always be on taking a ‘space-to-sales” mentality and focusing on what will generate the most volume, sales, profits, while limiting waste from that secondary display space,” Resner added. Then, if space warrants, retailers can add a few trays or options of value-added/high margin products.
Seafood sales can benefit by focusing on prepared and easy meal prep. Offering more prepared seafood meals and meal solutions for easy home preparation is vital to helping fresh seafood compete with the growth of meat, experts say.
As consumers cook or partially prepare more restaurant-quality meals at home — 700 million meals shifted from out of home to home in 2023 and 2024, DuBois said — they are buying more beef.
“Cooking at home is a big deal, plus the difference in cost is a big deal,” he noted. For example, a steak meal prepared at home could cost $24 compared to a chain restaurant steak meal, which could be priced at around $75.
Easier meal options
Meat sales have also benefited from shoppers seeking convenience, as value-added beef and pork items sold in the meat case increased heftily in 2024, while prepared chicken items surged in the deli department, according to Roerink.
As a result, getting seafood out of the fresh seafood department and into meal kits, displays, and into ready-to-microwave or ready-to-cook solutions is very important, Roerink said.
While meal solutions typically focus on primary proteins such as beef and chicken, more retailers are offering seafood meal solutions in the deli department, according to Roerink.
“The cooking confidence barrier is higher for seafood than it is in meat. If all you need to do is turn on air fryer or oven and put in these dishes, it becomes a lot easier,” she said.
Retailers should also offer more single-serve seafood meal solutions for lunch and remember to include salmon and other seafood in grilling sets, according to Roerink.
DuBois predicts a strong year for prepared seafood items, particularly sushi. Sales of the increasingly popular dish rose 3.2% and volume was up 3.6% for the 52 weeks ending Dec. 1, according to Circana. “That’s a nice increase for a large prepared category worth $2.7 billion,” DuBois said. While some other prepared seafood items have lost sales, sushi sales have surged 64% over the past four years, Roerink added.
The popularity of sushi can be used as a gateway to grow engagement — particular among younger demographics — with the fresh seafood department, Roerink said. For instance, Generation Z “under indexes for refrigerated/fresh seafood, but loves sushi.”
Younger generations are buying more meat — 62% of meat purchases were made by millennials in 2024, Roerink noted, followed by Generation X. As retailers figure out what those generations are looking for, they can grow seafood sales as well, according to Roerink.
Millennial households have children who are starting to be of the age where they go through a larger volume of protein and are also buying different cuts of meat, prepare it differently, seek global flavors, and eat dishes such as sushi, ramen and pasta.
“The disconnect that seafood has with younger generations is going to be a disadvantage and hurt more and more, unless we can figure out a way to connect seafood to those younger consumers,” Roerink said.
For instance, millennials still use a main protein but include it in a bowl or a ramen that includes the protein prepared a different way than the traditional steak and potatoes dish preferred among Boomers.
“How can you think of the popular cuisines and integrate seafood in such a way that is addressing millennials’ skills in the kitchen, what they like to prepare, and global flavors?,” Roerink said.
Promotions that could boost seafood sales
Retailers that have maintained versus lost ground in seafood over the past year are those that have continued with promotional frequency and have grown sales by bundling seafood with meat item features, according to Resner.
“Adding a salmon or cod fillet to a steak feature helps provide the customer more protein idea options for their meal planning,” he noted.
Roerink sees continued strength in price off per pound promotions, BOGOs, and mix and match discounts. Seafood items could perform well included in mix and match promotions, such as Safeway’s offer of four small packages of protein for $20.
A mix-and-match promotion could include two pork chops, two chicken breasts, along with shrimp or salmon, Roerink suggested.
“That would encourage seafood purchases throughout the year.”
While seafood has always benefitted from having a “health halo,” meat and poultry are also benefitting from consumers understanding that they are high in protein and are a healthy, wholesome food, Roerink said.
“The opportunity is for seafood [retailers] to start talking about it being a lean protein and calling out all the other health benefits [such as] zinc and immunity and protein and muscle building,” Roerink said.
Retailers can also call out seafood’s sustainability attributes as younger generations are particularly interested in reducing packaging waste, food waste and sustainability in packaging.
“Provide transparency into how the seafood was produced and where [and] what you are doing in terms of protecting the planet,” Roerink said.
For the remainder of 2025, Roerink expects demand for meat to continue to be strong. “Part of the reason why retail did so well in 2024 was that food occasions moved from restaurant to retail. I expect that to continue to be that way in today’s environment of great uncertainty in terms of inflation, tariffs, and unemployment.”
One of the first reactions in difficult economic uncertainty is for consumers to prepare more meals at home and contract to core categories such as meat and poultry, Roerink added.
While there was some improvement in seafood sales in the second half of 2024, sales did not get above the levels of 2023 — except for frozen. Roerink projects more of the same for fresh seafood in 2024 with flat sales and slightly more growth in 2025.