THE big supermarkets in the north all had more shoppers through their tills in the last quarter as consumers spent millions of pounds more than the year before - despite inflation reaching its highest level since January 2014.
Tesco continues to perform well and experienced sales growth of 3.1 per cent, according to David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel.
He said: "Shoppers spent an additional £83 at the retailer over the past year and made almost three extra trips, despite a fall in customer numbers overall.
"Sainsbury’s has also lost customers but maintained the same market share level as this time last year at 17.3 per cent. The retailer’s remaining customers spent an extra £100 on average making four extra trips over the year.
“Lidl experienced the fastest growth of the major retailers after shoppers spent an extra £17.60 through buying more items and slight price increases.”
In the Republic, shoppers spent an additional €96 million (£85m) on groceries over the latest 12 weeks compared to last year, led to this growth.
First, shoppers are choosing to buy slightly more expensive items and this is reflected in continued sales growth for brands.
And second, customers have picked up more items during their weekly shop, with the cost of the average trip 60 cent more than this time last year according to Kantar data.
