Hy-Vee’s Super Bowl Win

Yes, Patrick Mahomes is an unbelievably good quarterback. Also, many brands are unbelievably good at commercials. But did you know that Hy-Vee was unbelievably good at getting Missouri residents to buy groceries before the big game?

Taking Business Insider’s ranking for the most popular supermarket by state as our starting point, we looked at the two primary beneficiaries of the 2020 Super Bowl, Missouri and California.

Comparing daily visits to the baseline for the period from January 2019 through early February 2020, saw visits rise an enormous 110.6% on the Saturday before the game. This is dramatically higher than the 35.2% rise on the Saturday before the Super Bowl in 2019 or the 45.1% rise on the Sunday of gameday in 2019. Visits on the day were 45.5% above, indicating that last-minute runs to buy needed ingredients were still in high demand.

Trader Joe’s, the grocer of choice for California, also saw a rise, though far more modest. Visits on the day before the Super Bowl in 2020 were 29.9% above the baseline for the period, besting the 16.8% rise the brand saw in the day before the Super Bowl in 2019.

While some of the growth is mitigated by the vastly larger state Trader Joe’s operates in, it is safe to say that this title is coming to Kansas City as well.

Seminole Hard Rock Strikes the Right Chord

It’s a hotel in the shape of a guitar. And while there is certainly room to debate whether the design was instrumental to the success, the data left little doubt about the quality of the performance itself.

Visits to the new location spiked dramatically following the launch, reaching a peak in late 2019. Analyzing the period from January 2017 through early February 2020, visits reached a 169.0% above the baseline the last full week of 2020. 

Even the lowest-performing week since the launch was impressive with visits rising 44.8% above the baseline, better than any single week in the period analyzed.  

How big is a state’s Super Bowl bump in other sectors? Can the Hard Rock remain a must-visit in Florida’s tourism landscape? Visit Placer.ai to find out.