Americans still love their Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes, but some signs point to a weakening in the broader pumpkin spice market
It’s a question worth asking as key data points reveal that the popularity of the seasonal flavoring could be waning. And it comes as another pumpkin-spice season is already upon us, with restaurants and food and beverage manufacturers flooding the market with the usual — and not-so-usual — offerings.
And it’s not just drinks that are going over-gourd. As you peruse store shelves in the next few weeks, expect to find everything from pumpkin spice bagels to — what else? — pumpkin spice cream cheese. The pumpkin spice mania might suggest a booming market — and by some measures, it indeed is. Market researcher NielsenIQ says U.S. sales of retail pumpkin-flavored products reached $803 million for the 52-week period ending in late July 2023 — a nearly 15% increase from the prior 52-week period.
The declines aren’t super-dramatic, but they are declines nevertheless. And NielsenIQ isn’t the only one picking up on the slight downward trend in some aspects of the pumpkin spice market. Mark Kalinowski, a veteran restaurant analyst, notes that Starbucks and other companies have tried to broaden the fall flavor array with the introduction of apple and other products. But consumers inevitably return to pumpkin spice.It’s also the champ of social media. A 2022 Montclair State University study found that the majority of those posting about pumpkin spice on such platforms as Instagram META, -0.79% and Twitter were “positive in nature.
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