For the five week period up to 29 December 2012, the sales volume of all grocery products declined by 1.1% compared to the previous year to just under six billion grocery items across all of the major UK supermarkets.
Sales value during this period increased by 1.7% to £10.7bn, reflecting the continued price increases facing already cash strapped grocery shoppers. However, the rate of price increase has declined over Christmas, mirroring recent figures from the British Retail Consortium that show a fall in food inflation during December from 4.6% to 4.1%.
Tim Eales, director of Strategic Insight at SymphonyIRI Group, said: “Retailers may be cautious about passing on price increases to shoppers who are struggling to absorb rising living costs but prices are rising regardless.
“Our analysis of the Christmas sales period, always an important seasonal sales event for grocers, shows that shoppers are continuing to buy less to control their grocery basket cost. They have also been controlling the cost of their grocery shopping by trading down – buying more products on promotion and switching to lower cost alternatives to their usual purchases.”
Source: SymphonyIRI Group
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