- Shoppers rethinking their spending
- Grocery price inflation hits new record
- Clear split between winners and losers
The latest supermarket sales data from consultants Kantar shows just how much households are chasing value when it comes to the weekly shop.
With grocery prices rising 13.9% in September, the highest figure since Kantar started collecting the data in 2008, more shoppers are buying what it calls ‘imperfect produce’ like wonky carrots and onions to keep their bills down.
Meanwhile, sales of supermarket own-label goods jumped 8.1% last month while sales of branded goods fell 0.7% instead.
ALL ABOUT VALUE
‘The cost-of-living crisis is still hitting people hard at the checkouts,’ says Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
‘Based on our numbers, the average household is facing a £643 jump in their annual grocery bill to £5,265 if they continue to buy the same items.
‘Taking that at a basket level, that’s an extra £3.04 on top of the cost of the average shopping trip last year which was £21.89,’ explains McKevitt.
As well as buying wonky produce and more frozen goods to cut costs and food waste, consumers are looking at using their ovens less so sales of slow cookers, air fryers and sandwich makers - which use much less energy than ovens - have jumped by more than 50%.
Shoppers are also flocking to the discounters with Lidl and Aldi both experiencing more than 20% growth in sales in value terms in the 12 weeks to the start of October compared with just 4.8% for the whole grocery market.
WHO ARE THE WINNERS AND LOSERS?
The latest data shows that of the full-range supermarkets, Asda has done the best in terms of keeping hold of customers.
The chain’s market share in the last 12 weeks was 14.3% compared with 14.4% in the same period last year, while Sainsbury’s (SBRY) saw its share slip to 14.7% against 14.9% and Tesco’s (TSCO) share dropped to 27% against 27.5% last year.
At the ‘value’ end of the market, Morrisons looks to be struggling with sales falling all year and its market share contracting to 9% from 9.8%, putting it behind Aldi which has a 9.3% share.
Meanwhile, at the top end of the market, Waitrose has also posted negative sales all year and its market share has shrunk to 4.7% compared with 5.1% a year ago.
