cerealBecause breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day and people only have an average of thirteen minutes every day to prepare and eat it, they turn to the most convenient choice, cold breakfast cereals.

However, in recent studies conducted by IRI/Symphony, it has been shown that less and less Americans are eating their usual breakfast cereals. Reports have shown that ready-to-eat cereal product sales lowered to 2.55% in the fifty-two weeks which ended last April 17. The total amount gained in sales for these breakfast products was $6.41 billion. Cereals under private label brands earned only $637.5 million in the same period, dropping 7.2% from its previous sales.

Brands that have been affected by this drop in sales include Cheerios, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Special K and Corn Pops. These brands’ sales have been reduced significantly ever since 2007 and through 2010. Even until recently, sales for these brands have continued to spiral down.

Back in the previous years, from the 1980s to the early years of the 1990s, these ready-to-eat cereals were included among the most profitable food products. However, with the increased prices of brand name cereals, this trend started to decline. Added to the already high prices of cereals was the introduction of convenient breakfast items like toaster pastries and bagels, which American consumers seemed to prefer more lately. Once, it was thought that cereals would be able to withstand the burden of an economy in recession because it was cheap and it was easy to prepare. However, with the growing popularity of convenient breakfast meals nowadays, it seems that ready-to-eat cereal products are having a difficult time doing that.