UK supermarket shoppers hit by price hikes amid supply crunch | supermarket

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Supermarket prices are up 1.3% this month, marking a significant increase in grocery price inflation as supply chain difficulties begin to weigh on shoppers.

The price hike was more significant in tasty snacks, cat food and packaged cakes and pastries according to analysts in Kantar, who said the pace of inflation in the month to Sept. 5 had more than tripled the 0.4% figure for August, which was the same as the first month of price hikes since April.

The numbers come after multiple predictions from business leaders about a rise in the cost of living in the fall sparked by the Covid and Brexit disruption, including a shortage of delivery drivers.

Consumer goods makers such as Nestle, Procter and Gamble and Unilever have said they will have to raise their prices and retailers expect the cost of filling a cart will rise further if the disruption continues.

“A lot of shoppers were shielded in 2021 from price increases, with more sold in promotions this year than in 2020. But just last month, 27.5% of spending was on,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of consumer and retail statistics. deals. Other than the early days of closing last year, this is the lowest level recorded in 15 years that we have been tracking with this data.”

The price hike comes amid a dramatic change in shoppers’ behavior as schools return after the summer holidays and many workers return to the office.

Online grocery sales fell to 12.2% of the total grocery market in September from 13% four weeks ago — the lowest level since May 2020 as people started spending more in stores. The average value of the online store is now £78.28, nearly £17 less than its peak at the start of the pandemic.

This reflects a move away from the weekly or bi-monthly supermarkets to frequent small trips and back to eating out and takeaways as life gets busier, McFate said. Refrigerated takeaway sales rose 11% in September.

Sales of groceries for take-home, rather than on-the-go, are down nearly 2% across the UK in the three months to September 5 compared to strong trading last year when restaurants were closed for some of that period. Sales of Waitrose and Tesco only increased in the changing market.

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“There are major lifestyle changes looming as commuters return to the office and back to school this fall, and we expect this to affect how people shop,” McKevitt said.

“In the first week of September, we measured the highest supermarket footfall of the year outside the Easter period with more people going out and eating things as they went. This suggests a hint of change, and could see shoppers avoiding the ‘superstore’ In favor of increased repeat purchases.

But we shouldn’t expect to shift from habits learned in lockdown straight to pre-Covid patterns overnight. The needle will likely rest somewhere in between.”

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