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UK shoppers supermarket spend increased by 6.4% in 2023. That’s good news, isn’t it?
The Grocer’s Top Products Survey shows that UK shoppers spent an extra £7.8bn in supermarkets, an increase of 6.4%. The growth was across the 118 categories analysed, with 40% achieving double-digit sales growth.
But those figures couldn’t be more deceptive.
As with all industries, costs have increased, meaning we are all paying more for less. So, whilst the increase in £ sales was 6.4% the volume of goods sold actually decreased by 3.4%.
25% of UK families say they were regularly running out of cash for essentials at the beginning of the year as double-digit inflation, high energy bills, and soaring mortgage rates crippled millions.
The rising price of food only compounded these struggles and by March, food inflation was at a record high of 19.2% with the average price of some everyday products, like milk, eggs and sugar, up by as much as 50%.
This has led to own label products becoming stronger, especially store cupboard essentials.
Two years of inflation has really added to the cost of groceries and it is thought that not all input costs have started to go down yet. This will continue into 2024.
A really interesting read from The Grocer.