// Grocery bills will rise by £380 this year, £100 than estimated last month, as inflation continues to soar
// Despite rising inflation, shoppers headed to supermarkets to buy goods to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, with grocery sales at its highest level since October 2021 in the 12 weeks to 20 June
UK shoppers’ grocery bills are set to rise by £380 this year as inflation rose to its highest level in 13 years last month.
Like-for-like grocery prices rose 8.3% over the past month, reaching their highest level since April 2009, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
This latest data would mean average grocery bills would rise by £380, £100 more than the figure Kantar reported in April, which illustrates how sharp price increases have been recently.
Despite the rising inflation, grocery sales were at the highest level since October last year during the 12 weeks to 12 June as shoppers hit supermarkets to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.
Alcohol sales were up by a third and purchases of ice cream increased by 35% over the week compared to the average in 2022.
Although overall sales were £87 million higher than 2022’s average, they were still down 1.9% year-on-year.
Kantar Worldpanel head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “The sector hasn’t been in growth since April 2021 as it measures up against the record sales seen during the pandemic.
“However, these latest numbers show the market is to an extent returning to pre-Covid 19 norms as we begin comparisons with post-lockdown times.”
READ MORE: Tesco shoppers start trading down as cost of living bites
Trading down
Consumers have been taking steps to manage the impact of inflation.
The march to the discounters continued with Lidl and Aldi once again the fastest-growing grocers. Lidl’s sales surged 9.5% over the 12 week period as it reached 6.9% market share while Aldi’s sales grew 7.9%, taking its share up 0.8 percentage points year on year to 9.0%.
Shoppers also swapped branded items, which have declined by 1%, for cheaper own-label.
Kantar found that all value own-label lines grew by 12% over the period.
Store footfall jumped by 3.4% over the last four weeks, while online fell to its lowest proportion of the grocery market since May 2020 at 12%.
Online grocery sales have been in decline since the last lockdown, and May was the twelfth month in a row that they have dipped.
McKevitt said: “As well as the return to pre-Covid 19 habits, this drop could also be the result of shoppers looking to cut costs by avoiding delivery charges. The sunnier weather may also be pushing up store footfall, as people decide it’s warm enough to walk or cycle to their local supermarket.”
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