Consumers spent a record-breaking €1.4 billion in Irish supermarkets in December 2023, according to the latest figures from Kantar.
The average household spent an all-time high of €767 on groceries across the month, an increase of nearly €42 on 2022, and an even larger increase of €170 compared to spend in 2019.
Take-home grocery value sales grew by 7.8%, while the number of packs bought declined by 5.3%.
Kantar said that Irish shoppers made nearly 42 million trips to supermarkets over the four weeks to
That is 3.4 million more shopping trips than last year and the largest number ever recorded at Christmas.
Kantar
Emer Healy, business development director at Kantar said that Friday, December 22 was the most popular shopping day over Christmas week.
“Irish shoppers spent €92 million in stores, with just over two million trips made on Friday, December 22 alone, meaning that over 36% of Irish households were in store that day.
“However, with Christmas day falling on a Monday shoppers had a full week to prepare, which led to more staggered shopping trips and making Saturday 23 the second busiest trading day, with €87 million running through the tills,” she said.
Kantar said that although value sales are up significantly, grocery price inflation remains the driving factor behind this as opposed to increased purchasing.
Grocery inflation sits at 7.1% for the 12 weeks to December 24, 2023 – a considerable fall of more than half from the 15.5% rate in January 2023.
“This is the eighth month in a row that there has been a drop in inflation, which will be welcome news for consumers.
“It is the lowest inflation level we have seen since August 2022, and we expect to see this gradual decline continue throughout 2024,” Healy said.
Despite, grocery inflation level falls, they are still exceptionally high and as a result Irish consumers made savings where they could.
“Nearly 29% of all spend in the 12 weeks to December 24, 2023 was made on items with some promotional offer, the highest level since January 2023 and €117 million more than the previous year,” Healy said.
The data shows that consumers spent an an additional €105 million on branded goods compared Christmas 2022, while an additional €177 million was spent on premium private label ranges.
Irish shoppers spent an additional combined €34.9 million on branded take-home confectionary and take-home soft drinks versus the previous year.
Christmas
The volume of turkeys sold by supermarkets for Christmas dinner was up by almost 20%, with volumes of potatoes, carrots, and broccoli up 3.1%, 1.9% and 7.5% respectively.
However, Brussels sprouts and mince pies were less popular with volumes down 2.4% and 9.3% respectively.
Shoppers also stocked up on plenty of sweet treats for the festive season with sales of seasonal biscuits, chilled desserts, and chocolate confectionary all increasing on 2022 levels.
According to Kantar, Dunnes, SuperValu and Tesco accounted for a combined market share of 69% during the 12 weeks to December 24.
Dunnes hit a new record market share of 24.5%, with growth of 11.5% year-on-year.
Tesco holds 23.7% of the market, which is also a new record for the retailer and represents value growth of 10.9% year-on-year.
SuperValu holds 20.8% of the market, with growth in spend up 6%, Lidl holds a 12.5% share of spend, with value growth of 10.2% year-on-year, while Aldi’s share of the total market is 10.9%, and it grew its value by 1% year-on-year.