New data show that household budgets are coming under pressure as grocery price inflation reached its highest level since October 2020 at 1.7% in the 12 weeks to January 23.
The data from Kantar show that the number of products being sold on promotion has dropped by 3% compared with last January.
Kantar also said it was seeing evidence of people starting to shop around at different retailers to try and find the best price for their weekly shop.
Today’s figures from Kantar show that grocery sales declined by 4.5% over the 12 week period compared to the same time the previous year.
But sales still remain 11.2% higher than two years ago before the Covid pandemic took hold.
Emer Healy, senior retail analyst at Kantar, said that life is returning to some normality here and grocery sales have dropped on an annual basis as people are able to eat out in pubs, cafés and restaurants again.
“We can see the impact of these busier social calendars in people’s baskets. Many consumers have turned to convenience options as they juggle new routines, with an additional €14.5m spent on chilled convenience this period,” Ms Healy said.
Meanwhile, sales of deodorant and men’s skincare also rose by 3.8% and 6.5% respectively as people are out and about socially more over the last 12 weeks.
“Dry January” saw record-breaking engagement in Ireland, with 7.6% of households purchasing a non-alcoholic beverage, an increase of 5.8% since 2018.
But the impact of Veganuary was more muted as shoppers spent €481,000 less on frozen vegetarian products than this time last year, Kantar noted.
Today’s figures also show that online grocery sales grew again this month by 3.8%, with consumers spending €5.4m more than at the same time last year.
Kantar said that Dunnes retained its position as the country’s largest retailer, holding 23.1% of the market in the period up to January 23. Dunnes benefited from the largest influx of new shoppers, who contributed an additional €42.2m to its performance.
SuperValu followed closely with a market share of 22.2% while Tesco is just 0.1 percentage points behind this at 22.1%. Lidl now holds an 11.8% share of the grocery market, with Aldi at 11.6%.
Today’s figures also show that online grocery sales grew again this month by 3.8%, with consumers spending €5.4m more than at the same time last year.
Kantar said that Dunnes retained its position as the country’s largest retailer, holding 23.1% of the market in the period up to January 23.
Dunnes benefited from the largest influx of new shoppers, who contributed an additional €42.2m to its performance.
SuperValu followed closely with a market share of 22.2% while Tesco is just 0.1 percentage points behind this at 22.1%. Lidl now holds an 11.8% share of the grocery market, with Aldi at 11.6%.
Article Source – Grocery price inflation hits highest level since October 2020 – RTE