Food for thought

Falling toy sales proved a festive party pooper for Sainsbury’s.

The supermarket giant saw takings rise 1.1% over the past 15 weeks.

The chain had its best-ever sales in the week before Christmas.

But the increase was driven by a 2.3% jump in grocery sales as Sainsbury’s hit shoppers with higher food prices.

Sales of what is called general merchandise – non-food lines – dropped 1.4% over the same period.

The decline comes despite Sainsbury’s buying catalogue chain Argos to boost its non-food business.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said video games did well but “toy sales were more challenging”. The 1.1% rise in sales was weaker than the 2.8% jump that Bradford rival Morrisons announced the day before, although it was for a shorter 10-week period. Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, is set to reveal its festive figures today. Shares in Sainsbury’s rose 2.2% yesterday after the firm said full-year profits would be better than the £559million analysts were expecting. However, that was mainly due to £20m of cost savings from its Argos takeover happening faster than planned.