A publication of the USDA AMS Livestock and Poultry Program, Agricultural Analytics Division

May 29, 2019

Beef Steak Marketing for July Fourth 2018 

While Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of the summer outdoor grilling season, it is July Fourth when outdoor 

grilling activity hits is stride so it is no coincidence that July is National Grilling Month. Grilling is big business in the U.S. 

where it is estimated that three-fourths of Americans own a grill or smoker and beef steaks are a perennial griller’s favorite.

Not surprising, beef consumption is at its highest from July to September. In 2018, just over 7% of annual marketing by

supermarkets of the most popular beef steaks occurred during the run-up to July Fourth, ahead of Memorial Day (6.6%) and 

Labor Day (5.8%). Memorial Day is always a welcome kick-off to summer but, coming at the end of May, is sometimes 

hampered by cooler weather and schools are in session. By July, summer has heated up and vacations are underway. The 

Fourth also gets a boost from Father’s Day in mid-June, another popular beef steak grilling event that provides momentum 

heading into the first week of July. 

In 2018, T-bone steaks led all beef steaks in annual marketings at supermarkets making them 

the most popular bone-in beef steak among U.S. consumers with 14% marketing share. The 

most popular boneless beef steak in 2018 was the strip loin steak (aka New York, etc.) with 

12.5% of annual marketing share. But during July Fourth 2018, the boneless ribeye nosed the 

T-bone out based on retail marketing share. At the same time, the T-bone just squeezed past 

the bone-in ribeye. The table at right shows the most popular beef steaks marketed during 

July Fourth 2018. Offerings of bone-in beef steaks held a slight advantage of boneless steaks 

with a 51% to 49% share of marketings. 

During the 2018 July Fourth holiday, grocers employed the use of pack size to increase sales, wagering that many backyard 

cookouts tend to include a larger number of family and guests. Regular packs, usually of no more than one or two steaks, 

accounted for 71% of store features with 29% offered in value or family packs of multiple steaks. Of bone-in offerings, 36% 

were in value packs led by strip loins and followed closely by T-bones. Boneless steaks were offered in value packs in 22% 

of store ads, led by boneless ribeye steaks with 34% of offerings in value packs. Steak size also influences pack size with 

larger steaks like top round steaks for London broil marketed in regular packs 92% of the time and the porterhouse (Tbone’s beefier cousin) 85% of the time. 

Retailers were most likely to promote USDA Choice beef steaks for the holiday with 65% of the marketings of the top 8 

steaks listed qualifying for the USDA Choice grade. But retailers do not always promote the USDA grades in their beef steak 

features, most commonly as a large share of unidentified beef does not qualify for the USDA Prime, Choice, or Select grades. 

In many cases, the type of production system (organic, grass-fed, or raised without antibiotics) takes precedence in store 

ads and the USDA grade, if relevant, if not included. Over 11% of ads for beef steak were for product from these specialty 

systems including about 5% never-ever antibiotics, just under 5% grass-fed, and nearly 2% raised organically. Of the beef 

grown organically, the majority was grown in grass-fed conditions. 

Boneless ribeye steaks carried the highest average ad price (in both pack sizes) of the 

top 8 types featured for the Fourth in 2018. Ad prices for boneless strip loin steaks were 

a close second. Of the bone-in offerings, T-bones enjoyed the lowest average ad price 

which may explain part of their overall popularity. Their loin mate, the porterhouse was 

priced slightly higher. The lowest average ad price overall was for top 

round steaks for London broil, half the ad price of the boneless ribeye 

for regular packs. Top rounds tend to be more prominently 

featured at Memorial Day and taper off into the fall when marketing 

switches to the thicker cut roast version. 

Data Sources: USDA AMS Agricultural Analytics

M arket Insights

$/lbs regular value

Ribeye, bn-in 9.30 7.56

Ribeye, bnls 10.37 8.84

Strip, bn-in 7.08 6.54

Strip, bnls 10.02 8.08

T-bone 7.44 6.53

Top Round 5.29 5.42

Porterhouse 7.66 6.37

July 4th, 2018

Conventional Beef Steaks

Average Feature Price at Retail

Ribeye, bnls 17.4%

T-bone 16.8%

Ribeye, bn-in 16.6%

Top Sirloin 12.4%

Strip, bnls 11.6%

Strip, bn-in 10.1%

Top Round 7.9%

Porterhouse 7.2%

2018 July 4th Beef Steak

Marketing Share at Retail