The overall market, worth in the region of £35m each year to the major grocers, saw value sales of £1.6m last week (w/e 30 August 2014) as millions took to Facebook and other social media to post videos of themselves being soaked in ice-cold water.
The ice bucket challenge, in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association and other charities (including Macmillan Cancer Support), has spread quickly across social media, driven by celebrities as diverse as Kate Moss, BBC presenter Clare Balding and singer Susan Boyle.
Several supermarket chains have reported selling out of ice cubes as people rush to take part in the challenge, which involves tipping a bucket of iced water over your head before you then nominate someone else to do the same.
“We started to see ice cube sales rise in the last week of August despite the fact that the weather has been much cooler, so it was clear that something else was affecting the figures,” said Tim Eales, director of strategic insight at IRI. “While other frozen products like desserts and ice cream have fallen in the last month, ice cube sales have gone up and up, with people spending over £1m per week on them on average over the past four weeks, and £1.6m in the final week of August.”
According to IRI’s figures, value sales rose from £962k in the week ending 23 August to £1.6m last week.
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