Food for thought

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

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

The chain had their bestever sales in the week before Christmas.

But the increase was driven by a 2.3 per cent 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 per cent over the same period. The decline comes despite Sainsbury’s buying catalogue chain Argos to boost their non-food business. Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said video games did well but “toy sales were more challenging”. The 1.1 per cent rise in sales was weaker than the 2.8 per cent jump that Bradford rival Morrisons announced the day before, although it was for a shorter 10-week period. Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, are set to reveal their festive figures today. Shares in Sainsbury’s rose 2.2 per cent 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 their Argos takeover happening faster than planned.