According to the Department of Commerce Census Bureau, Grocery Store sales in March 2021 attained $63.5 billion.  This was 0.5 percent more than the corresponding month in 2020, affected by panic buying and stock-outs at the onset of COVID restrictions.  During March, Food and Beverage stores gained 0.7 percent on a year-over-year basis to $72 billion. Both sectors posted improvements over February 2021.  For the first quarter of 2021 grocery sales were up 0.9 percent to $185.2 billion and food and beverage sales were up 2.3 percent to $207.3 billion.