- Beyond Meat products are appearing at Dollar Tree stores, according to shoppers on social media.
- Packs of the brand's plant-based burgers and breakfast sausages are selling for $1.25, they say.
- Beyond Meat has struggled to grow sales and reach price parity with animal meat.
Beyond Meat appears to be available in a new retailer: Dollar Tree.
Shoppers have posted videos to social media in the last few days showing themselves buying the plant-based meat maker's products at a steep discount to their prices at other stores.
One Instagram user posted a video showing several trays, each containing two Beyond Burger patties, in the frozen food section of a Dollar Tree store. "Some have been wiping out shelves but be kind and leave some for others if you can," the user wrote in the caption. "Don't know how long they'll be around so get 'em!"
Another Dollar Tree shopper, this time on TikTok, reported finding six-packs of Beyond's Breakfast Sausage patties in addition to burgers at one of the retailer's stores. "Those burgers are normally nine bucks in Target," the user says after showing viewers her receipt from Dollar Tree. "Aldi's? Maybe $6, $7. So, for $1.25, you cannot go wrong."
A Beyond Meat spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the videos. It's unclear if the products are part of a limited-time test or a long-term distribution strategy. Insider did a quick check of prices for both Beyond products at six Washington, DC-area grocery stores. Two-packs of burgers were selling for between $4.49 and $7.29. Six-packs of breakfast sausage patties ranged from $4.99 to $6.39.
Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown has long said that Beyond's goal is to sell its products to shoppers for the same price as equivalent animal meat products.
But realizing that goal has been a challenge. After a run-up in demand early in the pandemic as consumers bought more groceries to cook at home, Beyond's sales have lost ground. Revenue fell 9.8% to $419 million in 2022, according to the company's latest earnings report. Beyond Meat is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on May 10.
To increase sales, Beyond is experimenting with lower on-the-shelf prices at some retailers, Brown said during the company's most recent earnings call in February. Early results from those trials indicated that consumers bought more of Beyond's products when prices were lower, he said. The company did not disclose which retailers it was working with on the trials or other details about them.
"It seems reasonable that consumers may retreat from protein that can be twice the price of animal-based equivalents during periods of intense inflation and reduced buying power, and that a reduction in price given this dynamic would spur increased consumption," Brown said.
Plant-based meat makers of all kinds have seen demand for their products slow down over the last couple of years. High prices, taste, and questions about the health benefits of the meat alternatives are some of the reasons consumers have become more hesitant.