Irish shoppers spent an extra €2 billion on take home groceries with the pandemic over the last year, with as much as €7.6m going on tea and €19.5m on instant coffee as people took to home comforts in much greater numbers, Kantar reports in its latest figures. Totting it all up, the average household grocery bill increased by €1,000 this year.
Grocery sales grew by 16.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to February 21.
Growth was even stronger during the past month at 17.7 per cent, the highest level since November 2020, as shoppers spent an extra €151.1m. Kantar’s Emer Healy said that Ireland approach a full year since the first lockdown, it is evident how the months of restaurant and bar closures, working from home and home schooling have added up.
However, with social distancing and limited gatherings, shampoo sales were down 0.8 per cent and conditioner by 2.7 per cent in recent months and deodorant down 5.4 per cent. Staying at home and more handwashing saw a steep decline in sales of cold and flu remedies, with cold treatments down by 55 per cent, cough liquids 60 per cent and lozenges 42 per cent.
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Liquid soap continues to be an exception in these aisles and sales were up 99.5 per cent in the most recent three months. February brought Valentines’ Day and Shrove Tuesday, and consumers continued to make the most of events they could safely celebrate at home in lockdown. They spent an extra €3.2m on boxed chocolates to treat their loved ones.
Sales of flour, eggs and syrup grew by 56 per cent, 21 per cent and 14 per cent around Pancake Tuesday. Online grocery sales had another record-breaking month as shoppers ordered €63m worth of take-home groceries, accounting for 6.3 per cent of all sales. Online’s share has surged forward compared with the pre-pandemic level of 2.7 per cent.
Lockdown may have converted some previously reluctant digital customers long-term as 241,500 people made an order in February, compared with 114,800 last year. They are also using services more often, completing 21.7 peer cent more digital orders a month. SuperValu is now the top supermarket, growing sales by 20.9 per cent to take a 22.3 per cent share.
It was the only retailer to attract new shoppers into its stores and its customers traded up when they were there, spending €70m more on branded goods than this time last year. Dunnes increased its sales by 9.7 per cent this period as its customers picked up extra items in store and continued to spend more per buyer than at any other retailer at €618.60.
It totalled an extra €62.5m spent over the 12 weeks. Lidl was once again the fastest growing retailer at 21.8 per cent, with basket sizes up by almost 15 per cent year on year. Aldi customers spent an extra €57.1m this period, driving 13.4 per cent growth. Tesco shoppers added an extra 3.6 items to their baskets, helping overall sales to jump by 18 points.
