persist as the mix trend reversion toward consumables has returned to, and now exceeds, pre-pandemic levels. Several of our initiatives, including certain of those discussed below, are intended to address these mix challenges; however, there can be no assurances that these efforts will be successful.
In the first half of 2022, we saw continued growth in average transaction amount, which was driven primarily by inflation, and, to a lesser degree, our merchandising efforts. In the second quarter of 2022, we experienced slightly positive customer traffic. In addition, although we believe our sales in recent periods were negatively impacted by the global and domestic supply chain challenges and disruptions discussed further below, primarily in the form of lower merchandise in-stock levels in our stores, we have seen some improvement in our in-stock levels in each of the first and second quarters of 2022. However, these supply chain challenges are ongoing, and there can be no assurance that we will continue to experience improvements in in-stock levels or when in-stock levels will return to historical pre-pandemic levels.
We continue to implement and invest in certain strategic initiatives that we believe will help drive profitable sales growth, both with new and existing customers, and capture long-term growth opportunities. Such opportunities include providing our customers with additional shopping access points and even greater convenience by leveraging and developing digital tools and technology, such as our Dollar General app, which contains a variety of tools to enhance the in-store shopping experience. Additionally, we launched a partnership with a third party delivery service during 2021, which was available in more than 13,300 of our stores at the end of the second quarter of 2022, and we continue to grow our DG Media Network, which is our platform for connecting brand partners with our customers to drive even greater value for each.
Further, our non-consumables initiative, which offers a new, differentiated and limited assortment that will change throughout the year, continues to contribute to improved overall sales and gross margin performance in stores where it has been deployed. We have significantly expanded the number of stores with either the full or the “lite” version of our non-consumables initiative offering, and plan to complete the rollout in the vast majority of our Dollar General stores by the end of 2022.
Additionally, we are continuing to grow the footprint of pOpshelf, a unique retail concept that incorporates certain of the lessons learned from the non-consumables initiative in a differentiated format that is focused on categories such as seasonal and home décor, health and beauty, home cleaning supplies, and party and entertainment goods. At the end of the second quarter of 2022, we operated 80 standalone pOpshelf locations and 32 pOpshelf store-within-a-store concepts within existing Dollar General Market stores. Our goal is to operate approximately 150 pOpshelf locations, as well as approximately 40 pOpshelf store-within-a-store concepts, by the end of 2022. We believe this concept represents a significant growth opportunity and are targeting approximately 1,000 pOpshelf stores by the end of 2025.
Our “DG Fresh” initiative, a self-distribution model for frozen and refrigerated products that is designed to reduce product costs, enhance item assortment, improve our in-stock position, and enhance sales, has positively contributed to our sales performance since we completed the initial rollout in the second quarter of 2021, driven by higher in-stock levels and the introduction of new products in select stores. In addition, DG Fresh has benefitted gross profit through improved initial markups on inventory purchases, which were partially offset by increased distribution and transportation costs. DG Fresh now wholly or partially serves essentially all stores across the chain, and we expect the overall net benefit to our financial results to continue throughout 2022. Moving forward, we plan to focus on additional optimization of the distribution footprint and product assortment within DG Fresh to further drive profitable sales growth.
To support our other operating priorities, we remain focused on capturing growth opportunities. In the first half of 2022, we opened 466 new stores, remodeled 1,065 stores, and relocated 62 stores. As a result of ongoing delays in permitting and receipt of construction materials, our new store openings are expected to be in the range of 1,010 to 1,060 (including planned pOpshelf stores and our first stores in Mexico) in 2022. As a result of the revised new store plans, we now plan to remodel approximately 1,795 stores, and relocate approximately 125 stores, for a total in the range of 2,930 to 2,980 real estate projects in 2022. We expect stores in Mexico, which will represent our first store locations outside the United States, to open in the fourth quarter of 2022.
We continue to innovate within our channel and utilize the most productive of our various Dollar General store formats based on the specific market opportunity. We expect store format innovation to allow us to capture additional growth opportunities within our existing markets. We are now using two larger format stores (approximately 8,500