Food prices keep rising as consumers shop more for less

The Herald Scotland

4 days ago

"Higher prices didn't stop shoppers making 490 million trips to the supermarket over the latest month, averaging almost 17 per British household," said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar. "That's the highest we've recorded since March 2020."
However, a rise in frequency was balanced out by a drop in average trip spend, which fell back by three pence to £23.89.
Sales of own label ranges grew at 4.2%, ahead of branded lines, as shoppers looked to balance their budgets. The proportion of spending on promotional deals stepped up to 28.8% the period.
Overall grocery volumes fell slightly by 0.4%, the first annual decline recorded this year. Mr McKevitt said a small part of this fall could be down to changing health priorities such as the growing use of GLP-1 weight loss drugs.
'Supermarkets and grocery brands are entering new territory as weight loss drugs become more popular, with four in 100 households in Great Britain now including at least one GLP-1 user," he said.
"That's almost twice as many as last year so while it's still pretty low, it's definitely a trend that the industry should keep an eye on as these drugs have the potential to steer choices at the till. Four in five of the users we surveyed say they plan to eat fewer chocolates and crisps, and nearly three quarters intend to cut back on biscuits.'
Fresh fruit sales were one of the biggest winners with consumers purchasing 2,400 packs of strawberries every minute during the four-week period. People also traded up to more exotic fruits with sales of mangoes and blueberries climbing by 27% and 10% each.
Ocado was the fastest-growing grocer with sales up 12.2% during the 12 weeks to June 15, driven by more frequent visits to the online store and strong performance within its traditional heartlands of London and southern England. Ocado's market share now sits at 1.9%.
Among bricks and mortar grocers, Lidl was the fastest growing at 11.2%, its third consecutive month of double-digit growth. Lidl's portion of the market reached 8.1%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points on this time last year.
Fellow discounter Aldi increased its share to 10.9% as sales rose by 6.5%.
Spending through the tills at Tesco accelerated to 7% as it recorded the highest share gain over the period of 0.5 percentage points, taking it to 28.1%. Sainsbury's' share also nudged up to 15.2% as sales grew by 5.7%.
Morrisons now holds 8.4% of the market, with spending rising by 2.2%.
Asda continued to struggle with sales through the tills 1.7% lower than a year earlier, though this was an improvement on recent performance. Its market share stands at 11.9%. Waitrose boosted its sales by 5.5%, the highest since March 2021, meaning it now holds a 4.5% share of the market.
Scots tourism reports record year for international visits
(Image:) The number of international visitors to Scotland increased again in 2024, as new figures show a record 4.4 million trips were made to the country last year – a 10% rise on 2023.