Deck the aisles with rows of trolleys: festive shopping hits record €1.2bn
A NEW Christmas food-buying record was set last month – as shoppers across the country splashed out €1.2billion on groceries.
The pandemic meant eating out was off the menu, so to make up for it, people stocked up with festive treats at home.
As families en during restrictions tried to keep spirits high, our collective alcohol spend was up by a third on the previous year.
However, smaller gatherings also meant turkeys weren’t gobbled up as much, with people opting for smaller birds and often ditching them altogether in favour of beef or pork, due to reduced attendance for family Christmas dinners.
Retail analyst Emer Healy, of Kantar, which monitors supermarket sales, said: ‘Christmas
‘Ways to keep spirits high’
was certainly different this year, but pa red-back festivities didn’t stop Irish families from looking for ways to keep spirits high.
‘Even though there was a temporary easing of restrictions on eating and drinking out in December, most of us still turned to the supermarkets to provide some sorely needed festive cheer.
‘As an extraordinary year drew to a close, the average shopper spent €134 more on groceries in December than they did last year.’
December 23 was the busiest shopping day of the year, with almost half the population hitting the supermarkets to stock up for Christmas Day.
Ms Healy said: ‘Overall grocery spend was more spread out during the run- up to Christmas than we’d normally expect to see, as consumers with more time on their hands at home took the opportunity to prepare early.’
Online orders accounted for more than 4% of all grocery sales last month, which was described as ‘a significant leap from 2.8% in December 2019’.
Fewer guests in most homes meant a smaller- scale feast, and shoppers spent €1.2million less on whole turkeys over the four weeks to December 27 compared with the same period last year.
Ms Healy said: ‘ The traditional turkey was off the menu for many this Christmas as lots of Irish households favoured smaller cuts of meat. In a break from the norm, we spent €938,000 more on turkey rolls, €398,000 extra on roast beef and an additional €480,000 on roast pork in December.’
Some classic festive favourites prevailed, with sales of sprouts shooting up by 7.3%.
Ms Healy added: ‘ Although not a traditional Christmas, shoppers still endeavoured to make it a merry one and to treat themselves after a tough year. Our collective sweet tooth saw an extra €6.7million spent on chocolate confectionery this December. We also parted with €3million extra on cheese and, as we all raised a glass to the end of 2020, alcohol sales soared by 33%.’
Lidl stood out as the fastestgrowing grocer in the three months running up to Christmas, particularly in the alcohol aisles, where sales soared by 70%. Overall, Lidl gained an extra 0.9 percentage points of the market share for this period.
The sales of branded products generated an additional €1.6billion across the whole of 2020, with sales of premium private-label items increasing by 17.8% in the most recent 12 weeks.
Ms Healy added: ‘With our usual festivities curtailed, Irish shoppers splashed out on household names and premium products to mark the occasion.’
Bolstered by their strong online presence, Tesco and SuperValu are tied for the position of Ireland’s secondbiggest grocer after Dunnes, and both held a 22.1% market share in the 12-week period at the end of last year. Shoppers are visiting SuperValu more frequently, adding up to an extra 730,000 trips, which helped the retailer to grow ahead of the market and narrow the gap with Dunnes.
Meanwhile, bulk- buying drove Tesco’s strong growth over the 12 weeks. Dunnes holds the largest share of the market at 22.5%; shoppers spent more per trip there than in any other retailer, helping it increase sales by 11.4%.
‘Festivities curtailed