Can of Spam still shoppers' favorite, even as price hits $2.79

With food prices on the rise and families struggling to stretch their food dollars, sales of Spam are up - and so is the price.

Spam is just the sort of food you'd expect Americans to turn to in an economic crisis. The iconic metal can has been a part of the country's food landscape since 1937, fed the troops during World War II and harkens back to Baby Boomers' childhood.

Spam also enjoys something of a cult standing in popular culture, with legions of devoted fans swapping recipes online, annual festivals in Hawaii and Minnesota, and Spam cooking competitions at more than 20 county and state fairs.

For many others, it remains a deliberately repressed culinary memory.

Still, the numbers suggest many people are giving Spam a second chance.

In its most recent earnings report, filed last month, Hormel Foods reported a 6 percent first-quarter sales increase in its grocery foods division, driven by bigger sales of Spam and other products.

Hormel's international sales increased 17 percent year-over-year, driven by greater exports of fresh pork and Spam. That helped increase Hormel's first-quarter earnings 34 percent, compared to 2010.

Hormel spokeswoman Julie H. Craven explained her theory as to why in an email to the Tribune:

"Sales of Spam products continue to rise both nationally and internationally because it is offered at a great value, has a distinct savory and salty-sweet taste consumers enjoy and is versatile because it can be used in a variety of dishes."

A combination of ham and chopped pork shoulder meat, Spam is versatile. Witness the hundreds of recipes logged on the official Spam Recipe Exchange and the many varieties Hormel sells, including Spam with bacon, Spam with cheese and hickory smoked SPAM.

Though it's heavily processed, with high fat and sodium counts, Spam also plays into the nation's love affair with pork.

And, it's inexpensive.

Nationally, the suggested retail price is $2.79 for a 12-ounce can, and the average price this week is $2.50 at the five supermarkets the Tribune surveys for its weekly Market Basket report.

Target has the best deal at $2.24, followed by Publix, at $2.29.

But Spam isn't as cheap as it used to be.

In late 2010, Hormel Foods raised prices 3 to 4 percent on a variety of its products, which also include Jennie-O turkey and Dinty Moore stew.

The company followed with another single-digit price increase this year in an effort to offset increased costs. Animal feed and transportation costs, in particular, have been hitting food producers hard, driving up retail food prices.

"With costs of inputs continuing to increase, we, like all of the other food companies, have announced strategic and modest price increases for a number of our products," Craven said.

"While there is never a good time to institute a price increase, we are always sensitive to our consumers needs."

In fact, while sales of grocery foods were up, overall profit in that division declined by 10 percent because of higher raw material costs, according to Hormel's first-quarter report.

Spam remains affordable, but it may not be the dirt-cheap meal shoppers think it is.

By comparison, for example, the average prices of canned tuna fish and fresh ground chuck are cheaper this week at the five stores in the Market Basket survey.

The average low price of ground chuck at those stores - Publix, Sweetbay, Winn Dixie, Target and Walmart - is $3.13 a pound, or 20 cents an ounce.

A 5-ounce can of Starkist tuna is, on average, 84 cents, or 17 cents an ounce.

By comparison, Spam is selling for an average of $2.50 for a 12-ounce can at those stores - 21 cents an ounce. The average low price of a pound a packaged deli ham is $3.99 a pound, or 25 cents an ounce.

Some stores offer cheaper versions of canned pork products.

Winn Dixie sells a 12-ounce can of its store brand for $1.67, compared to $2.50 for Spam. Walmart sells a store brand for $1.72 and a 12-ounce can of Armour Treet, a lunch loaf made with chicken and pork, for 96 cents.

Still, it's clear the Spam name speaks to shoppers.

Every store carries several varieties of it, and Publix even had a sign posted touting the 70-cent difference between its price and Sweetbay's.

jscullin@tampatrib.com

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