Oreo-maker Mondelez CEO says Americans are buying fewer snacks: ‘There’s a lot of consumer anxiety’

Americans are getting more cautious about spending on even small treats like Oreo cookies.

Mondelez, the company that makes Oreos and Chips Ahoy, said that revenue and sales volumes in the US fell during the company’s second quarter. The continued threat of tariffs and the state of the economy were major reasons shoppers cut back, CEO Dirk Van de Put said.

“There’s a lot of consumer anxiety,” Van de Put said on a call after the company reported results Tuesday.

Shoppers face an “uncertain outlook as it relates to their personal finances, job expectations, inflation, so they tend to focus more on essential items,” he said.

Many customers are buying smaller packs of cookies that cost more per unit than bigger family-sized packages, Van de Put said. That’s leading to a decline in the volume of snacks sold in the US.

Mondelez’s North American sales fell 3.5% year over year during the second quarter.

Consumers in the US have some reasons to watch their spending.

Companies from Conagra to Walmart have said they plan to pass along some of the costs of the Trump administration’s planned tariffs to customers, which could lead to higher prices at stores.

Tariffs also may have led to fewer Mondelez products on shelves at retailers, Van de Put said on Tuesday’s call. He said that while some stores stocked up on items that were set to be hit with tariffs over the last few months, they sought to offset those costs by holding off on purchases of non-tariffed goods such as snacks.

“Tariffs were coming,” Van de Put said. “They probably wanted to import more from the countries that were going to be affected.”

Some shoppers are also still feeling the pressure from years of high post-pandemic inflation. Many food makers raised snack prices as input costs rose, but have seen consumers pull back their spending in the last year or so.

“There’s an overall slowdown in food consumption and also in snacking,” Van de Put said. said.

Other evidence suggests that consumers are still willing to spend on food in certain settings. Recent research by Bank of America suggests that many diners are still spending on meals at restaurants — even as they tell pollsters that they are cutting back on eating out to save money.

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