I am regional manager for a major brand youve definitely heard of. It is true times are tough. The industry has been slowing down for years. Distributors are becoming useless as brands can now directly handle most orders themselves.
Also, Things are getting diluted by smaller brands. Stores are either going really clean (Plant Protein, keto, food items) or theyre going full blown dirty with most sales consisting of SARMs and Pros. Gone are the days of charging $40 for a preworkout obtained at $20 by the store.
More specifically The past few summers have been super slow but this year wasnt so bad for numbers. July usually hits hardest but everyone seemed to do OK. The CA, TX, and FL markets are still decent. Northeast is dying a slow death.
The big move now is food, grocery, and unique food items that dont have as much traction/demand on Amazon.