While many of us are soaking up the last of summer’s sun and fun, food manufacturing supply chains are readying for the upcoming holiday food rush.

Have you ever noticed a lot of our favorite memories are surrounded by food? When we go to celebrate something like a birthday, anniversary, or special achievement, it usually involves food. It’s no surprise then that over the holiday season, nearly 165 million consumers across the U.S. purchase food and beverages to celebrate, according to a study from Cornell. As the holidays soon approach, food consumption surges, with the average American indulging up to an extra 440 calories per serving!

The increased demand and tight holiday deadlines can present challenges for many food and beverage companies with their logistics. This is in addition to already facing a competitive peak shipping season! However, by understanding the dynamics of this unique period of time, shippers can ensure success is ahead of them. First, let’s dive into some fascinating facts and insights about food during the holiday season. Then, we’ll follow that with some essential tips so your company can be prepared for the holiday food rush!

Holiday Food Supply Timeline & Stats

The Holiday Food Surge Begins with Fall

The holiday food rush first begins with the arrival of fall flavors. Pumpkin spice, now seen as the quintessential flavor of fall, has seen a 47 percent increase in sales, as reported by The Guardian, within the past five years. In 2023 alone, Datassential reported 144 new limited-time offers that featured pumpkin on major restaurant menus. From the infamous Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSLs) to pumpkin soups and ravioli, this flavor dominates the season. But we can’t forget another fall favorite – apple. Food and beverage items with caramel apple were one of the highest-indexing flavors last fall.

Halloween Signals Significant Holiday Food Consumption Increase

Halloween is a major milestone in the holiday food timeline, with 65 percent of consumers participating in the festivities. In fact, of all 172 million that celebrate the spooky season, 95 percent of them purchase candy. Even more staggering is that a quarter of all the candy sold annually comes from Halloween sales. It’s not all about the sweets, though! Pizza is the most popular dinner staple on All Hallow’s Eve, according to Grubhub. There’s also the annual tradition of carving a pumpkin, with Statista reporting roughly 154 million Americans partaking in the activity in 2023.

Dia de Los Muertos Celebrations Begin to Trend

Datassential reports that 10 percent of consumers in the U.S. report celebrating Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This holiday is gaining popularity, which means so are the celebratory foods associated with it! Pan de Muerto is one traditional sweet bread that’s essential to the celebration.

Thanksgiving Continues to Drive Food Supply Chain Demand

Thanksgiving remains the most popular fall holiday, with 83 percent of Americans celebrating the tradition. A whopping 46 million turkeys are consumed each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other top holiday staples include cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin and apple pies. That’s a lot of food to prepare for a meal, so 23 percent of consumers will buy a full, ready-made meal from a restaurant. Another 22 percent will supplement with some food from restaurants for part of their feasts.

Sweets, Candy & Chocolate Build Holiday Food Demand at Christmas & New Year’s

Leading up to Christmas, many enjoy hot cocoa, cookies, and other treats. 1.76 billion candy canes, a holiday staple, are made annually for this joyous time of the year. 70 percent of Americans make Christmas desserts, with frosted sugar cookies being the top ones consumed annually. Don’t forget the eggnog! 122 million pounds of it is poured and drunk each year.

When it comes to Christmas dinner, pork dishes are the most popular globally, but turkey still trumps all for the U.S. Other winter feast staples include roasted or mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, gravy, stuffing, shrimp, and lots of Christmas pudding, cookies, and pies. Sweet tooths rejoice as 83 percent of consumers fill stockings with treats like candy and chocolate.

Christmas and New Year’s are among the busiest holidays for restaurants. Both holidays also see a spike in alcohol consumption, with New Year’s Eve being the second most alcohol-associated holiday behind Mardi Gras. Champagne is the fan favorite for those ringing in the New Year.

Logistics & SHipping Tips for Holiday Food Shipping

The holiday season often brings those in logistics the gift of increased demand and decreased capacity. Like most Americans, truck drivers aim to be home for the holidays, trimming the number of available carriers down. Freight of all kinds can increase during the period, further cutting the number of trucks available. Shippers with more specialized requirements, like temperature control, can find even less capacity. Shippers also have tighter deadlines to meet at this time to make the most of the seasonal business.

Overall, the holiday season can be a time of heightened stress and disruption. Given these unique challenges, it’s crucial for food and beverage shippers to prepare thoroughly to appease customers.

Five Tips for the Best Holiday Food Shipping Logistics Outcomes

Tip 1: Keep Inventory Stocked

Running out of stock during the holiday season is a surefire way to lose customers. Track your inventory levels closely and replenish supplies early to ensure you’re well-stocked. By keeping orders moving consistently, you’ll be able to meet consumer demand and avoid causing any disappointment.

Tip 2: Have Backup Shipping Plans Ready

The chances of any disruptions or delays happening during this season are increased. Having backup shipping plans already prepared is essential to keep your goods moving.

Build relationships with multiple carriers and suppliers, or even a third-party logistics provider (3PL). This way, you’ll have known contacts ready in case you need any help. 

Look at alternate modes of transportation and be prepared to quickly shift plans should something happen. Exploring multimodal options can be a great way to diversify risk, add capacity, and protect your freight budget. Having this flexibility available and ready can help you stay on track and your supply chain running smoothly.

Tip 3: Real-Time Visibility is Needed for Success

In today’s supply chains, having access to the visibility you need is crucial. You should either work with a provider that offers it or invest in your own technology, like a Transportation Management System (TMS).

A TMS can be very helpful during the holiday season. It can help you with routing decisions by matching your freight with the best carriers, lanes, and rates. In addition, it will allow you to optimize the in-house processes of your transportation network – which can be helpful during busy and slow seasons. By selecting the best carriers and optimizing your routes, you’ll not only increase your service but reduce your risk.

Using a TMS also gives you data-driven insights to better manage disruptions, reduce downtime, and budget your logistics spend. Data analytics can help you recognize which carriers are most likely to have the capacity, saving you time arranging your shipments.

Tip 4: Communication and Collaboration

Effective communication is key to a successful holiday season. Regularly communicate with all stakeholders, including suppliers, carriers, and customers. Collaborating with your partners during the seasonal planning phase can provide valuable insights and help you identify potential issues before they arise.

Tip 5: Partner with a 3PL

Working with a 3PL can be a game-changer during the holiday season. A 3PL offers access to a larger network of carriers, advanced technology, and expertise in managing complex logistics challenges. With their support, you can ensure your supply chain remains resilient, even in the face of unexpected disruptions.

Treat Yourself with Easier Logistics This Holiday Season

Navigating the holiday food rush can be overwhelming, and that’s why Trinity Logistics is here to be your guide. Like Santa, we’ve been around a while, with 45 years of experience handling logistics during holiday seasons.

Right away, you’ll gain access to our large network of vetted, quality carrier relationships to cover your shipments. But that’s just the start! There are many more benefits to working with Trinity, including:

• Multiple modes of transportation to find the best bang for your buck, support your business growth, or just have a backup plan ready
• Best-in-class technology and customized Managed Transportation solutions available, giving you the exact visibility and data you want
• 24/7/365 support, so no matter what day or time it is, you’ll have the help you need

One benefit that tends to shine above all else? Our exceptional People-Centric service. It’s the trait that makes Trinity different from other 3PLs and keeps our customers returning time and time again. It’s truly our care, compassion, and communication that you’ll notice and appreciate.

Everyone wants to enjoy the holiday season. Why not let Trinity focus on the logistics for your business, so you can go back to doing what you enjoy – helping consumers savor holiday treats and create memorable moments with your product.

Are you a Freight Agent that stumbled across this article?

“Fall is in the air” is something we like to say this time of year as the air becomes a little crisper, the leaves start to change color, and popular autumn flavors like pumpkin spice start rolling out. With the changing of seasons also comes the changing of products and produce that need to be shipped to fall lovers across the globe.

Fall shipping means truckloads of watermelons are traded for truckloads of pumpkins, pallets of tomatoes make way for pallets of fresh turkeys, and more fun-size candy shipments begin making the trek to stores in preparation for Halloween.

In this blog, we wanted to talk about the fun behind fall shipping: what we see more of in the autumn months and how a 3PL can help you get those shipments delivered before winter rolls in.

Fall Produce

When flourishing corn fields become corn mazes, it’s also the time that pumpkins start to plump on the vine. We start to see more less-than-truckload and truckload shipments of pumpkins, gourds, and certain types of squash from our produce customers. Fruits like apples, pears, grapes, citrus, and cherries become popular, shipped from the grower to produce markets and grocery stores. Other cold weather crops like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are shipping more frequently from the East Coast when fall begins to peak.

A 3PL, like Trinity Logistics, makes sure that all these pumpkins, pears, and produce get to your grocery stores. Trinity will communicate with the carrier arranged throughout the entire shipment process to ensure that all of your freight is delivered safely and on time.

Halloween Candy

Who didn’t love putting on a costume and collecting candy from neighbors far and wide? Americans last year spent more than $2.6 billion on candy for Halloween. That breaks down to more than 600 million pounds of confection, equivalent to the weight of six Titanic ships! If all of that was packed into trucks, that would be more than 1400 full truckloads. Retailers from coast to coast are stocking up on all types of candy to get their share of the “holiday goodies.”

Logistics companies see a strong increase in business during the sweet tooth season that is Halloween. Shipping candy can be tricky, especially when temperatures are high. No one wants their once solid candy bar to be delivered as a gooey chocolate mess. Utilizing a temperature-controlled truck can help prevent this issue and prolong the shelf-life of the candies being shipped.

Early Bird Gets the Sale

For traditionalists, holiday shopping no longer starts Black Friday or even Thanksgiving Day. In 2010, Best Buy began their Christmas sales November 1, with other department stores following suit just one day later. Since then, holiday decorations and retail campaigns for Christmas have crept right alongside Halloween costumes and candy.

The earlier sales mean earlier access to consumers with their specific holiday shopping budgets and more shipments of wrapping paper, ribbon, packaging, decorative tins, and chocolate, all of which we can help arrange. Trinity Logistics will be busy helping farms and factories ship their holiday wares to shelves, non-profits, and online shoppers very soon!

If you enjoy any of these products regularly, it arrived to store shelves thanks to a truck!

If your company produces any of these favorites, we can help make fall shipping simple. Just tell us a little bit about your shipment and we’ll give you a quote!

What do logistics companies and dentists have in common this time of year? They’re both seeing increased business thanks to the booming candy craze that picks up around Halloween. Fun-sized candies galore make it easy to “trick or treat yo’self” in October and beyond (50% off sales starting November 1st? Count me in)! Getting Halloween candy from the factory and smaller-batch stores to trick-or-treat bags is a fun process – and the amount of candy Americans consume and spend money on each year is much larger than fun-sized.

In 2016, it was reported that candy sales reached as high as $2.5 billion dollars. Of that, Americans spent $3.9 million on 3.5 billion chocolate bars, bags, and boxes that were under 3.5 ounces, according to the market research firm Information Resources. One of the most iconic, although widely debated, Halloween candies is the candy corn. The National Confectioners Association says 35 million pounds of candy corn and pumpkins are produced each year. Between sour, sweet, sugary, chocolatey, or gummy confections, the average household in America spends about $50 on Halloween candy each year. Overall, each person ends up eating about 24.5 pounds of candy a year, much of it during Halloween. In perspective, that’s 234 standard 1.5-ounce Kit Kat Bars, according to Mic.com. We may be overdoing it a bit.

All of that candy makes for a busy season for dentists, too. According to data from Sikka Software, app-systems installed in more than 13,000 dentist offices across the country, there was an 80 percent spike in emergency visits to the dentist in, around, and after October 2014.

If you’ve come to terms with the fact that holiday goodies are appearing on shelves earlier and earlier each year, it’s probably no surprise that shipping candy for Halloween and other holidays begins about three months before the date. That means Halloween candy is really heading to store shelves beginning in August, and a few weeks ahead of Halloween, logistics companies are right in the middle of the “Christmas Rush.” As consumers rush to buy their bags of spooky sweets to hand out, logistics companies are working with shippers, suppliers, and retailers to make sure Christmas candies are ready for stocking stuffers, and other holiday necessities.

Of course, by the time Christmas rolls around, we’re still talking candy, only this time the heart-shaped and pastel variety. The National Retail Federation says Americans spend $1.7 billion on Valentine’s candy alone. We’re talking anything from candy hearts to chocolates in large heart-shaped boxes.

Americans have a sweet tooth, and chocolate is the top seller according to Symphony IRI Group market research company. At the top of the chocolate list is good ol’ M&M’s, with 417.7 million units sold at the tune of $406.7 million dollars in 2015. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars, and Kit Kats also made the list, proving that not all candies sold throughout the year are miniature versions for trick-or-treat bags, stockings, or Easter baskets.

Shipping candy can get a little tricky, especially when the temperatures climb above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the point when delicate chocolate can begin to soften, and it can completely melt at 93 degrees. In October, average high temperatures in the U.S. are anywhere from the 50’s to the 80’s, according to the Weather Channel, so some treats still need to be temperature-controlled at points in their journey.

Most companies that ship chocolate try to limit the amount of transit time because of this delicate nature. Chocolates are best shipped during the week, avoiding weekends and holidays. Most chocolate orders that are placed after the first three or four days of the week are processed the following week to avoid warehouse time, according to “The Chocolate Journalist.” Some chocolate companies even charge more for shipping during the summer months to cover the costs of additional insulation and cooling. Larger shipments of chocolate can be made on a temperature-controlled truck, to help prolong the shelf-life of candies.