The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Rise in pumpkin sales but no stockpiling yet
Households have already spent £1.5 million on pumpkins ahead of Halloween but predictions of stockpiling prior to a no-deal Brexit have yet to translate into consistent sales, supermarket figures show.
While pumpkin sales over the last 12 weeks are 29% higher than last year, it appears shoppers are “waiting to see how the next few weeks play out” in relation to stockpiling, Kantar said.
Sales of dry pasta and healthcare products over the past four weeks were 9% and 7% higher than at this time last year, but canned products sales fell 2% and frozen food by 1%.
The latest grocery market share figures from Kantar show year-on-year supermarket sales were up by 1.3% during the last quarter.
Sainsbury’s sales rose at the fastest rate since October 2018 to make it the only big four retailer to achieve growth.
Fraser Mckevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “The grocery market seems to have finally edged out from under the shadow of 2018 and tough comparisons with the strong summer sales of last year.”
He added: “Well-documented concerns about the availability of popular products in the event of a no-deal Brexit have not yet translated into a consistent increase in purchasing.
“While a quarter of British consumers say they are considering stockpiling, it seems they are waiting to see how the next few weeks play out.”
The proportion of sales on promotion increased for the first time in nearly four-and-a-half years this period to 32.3%, driven by Tesco’s “100 years of value” campaign and Sainsbury’s “Price Lockdown”.
Tesco, Asda and Morrisons all improved their performance compared with last month, but sales are still down year on year.