U.S. consumers spent record highs on meat and alcohol for July 4th.
You may as well not consider yourself a red-blooded American if you aren’t scarfing down burgers and washing it down with a cold one on the fourth of July.
This July 4, holiday celebrants are expected to dish out $7.1 billion on food for Independence Day barbeques and picnics. This is an increase from $6.8 billion spent in 2016, the National Retail Federation has forecasted.
U.S. meat consumption is at am all-time high, but beef enthusiasts certainly live it up on July 4, the high-point of the grilling season. The average american eats approximately 200 pounds of meat per year, much of that coming on the fourth.
Last year, Americans bought close to $804 million worth of beef in the two weeks around the holiday, according to Nielsen, which tracks consumer data. They also purchased more than $371 million worth of chicken and more than $217 million worth of pork.
And what goes well with something yummy off the grill? Alcohol.
July 4 consumers spent more than $1 billion on beer and an estimated $568 million on wine in 2016, the financial Web site WalletHub found.
Source: USA Today
