Supermarket shoppers turn to frozen and canned meats in a bid to slim cost of weekly shop
Supermarket shoppers are swapping out traditional meat products for cheaper frozen and canned alternatives, in a bid to cut down on costs.
According to freshly published data from NielsenIQ, volume sales across all categories at UK supermarkets dropped 5.5 per cent over the past four weeks.
With household bills sky-rocketing in recent months, shoppers have turned to cheaper meat alternatives.
Frozen poultry sales have leapt 12 per cent while rice and grains have also jumped 11 per cent.
Canned beans and pasta have increased by 10 per cent while gravy/stock and canned meat have seen increases of similar proportions.
A trend of shoppers flocking to the discount retailers has continued, with Aldi and Lidl remaining the fastest growing grocers with a combined market share of 19.1 per cent.
“Shoppers are starting to make different choices in how to compensate for their rising cost of living,” Mike Watkins, NielsenIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight, said.
“For some households, the way to save money is to buy cheaper products and our analysis suggests that some of the increased cost of an overall basket can be mitigated in this way.”
In the four week period, visits to stores grew seven per cent while online sales fell 12 per cent, with almost half a million fewer online shoppers than in June 2021.
Watkins added: “It is no surprise that with budgets squeezed some households are less willing or less able to spend on a large online shop.
“Moreover, with no restrictions on visiting stores, this is encouraging shoppers to shop around for the best prices as well as shopping little and more often to help manage the weekly food budget.”
Shoppers have also been making more frequent trips to stores but buying less each trip, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s told Reuters.
“In many ways there is no playbook for what we’re dealing with at the moment, these are unprecedented circumstances,” he said.
“There is some evidence of customers shopping (more) to own brand and also areas like frozen are increasing. People are looking at making sure that they don’t incur any waste.”