“The beast from the east played havoc with consumers’ usual shopping plans,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar. However, despite the poor weather, grocery sales increased in value by 2.5% in the first 12 weeks of 2018, compared to the same period last year. Sales rose at all major chains apart from Iceland, where they fell 0.8%. However market share dipped among the remaining three of the so-called ‘big four’ supermarkets – Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons. Kantar said that supermarket prices were 2.5% higher over the 12 weeks compared with a year earlier, with butter, fish pork and lamb among the sharpest risers.

Source: The Guardian April 04, 2018 09:36 UTC