Shoppers are buying less, shifting to cheaper food alternatives and “shopping little and often” as almost one in six households consider themselves to be ‘strugglers’ amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
According to the latest market research from NielsenIQ, one in four households are also monitoring the overall cost of their shopping basket, choosing private label brand, waiting for products to be on offer or turning to value retailers such as Home Bargains, B&M or Poundland.
Of the 15% of households who now consider themselves to be ‘strugglers’, almost a quarter of this cohort will stop buying certain products altogether, while a further 28% will shop more at Aldi and Lidl.
The NielsenIQ data also revealed that frozen poultry rose 12% year-on-year in the four weeks to 18 June, with sales of rice and grains increasing by 11%, canned beans and pasta were up 10%, gravy/stock up 9%, canned meat up 9% and dry pasta up 31%, respectively.
Sales of alcohol have still been affected by the reopening of the hospitality industry a year ago, falling by 9.7%.
Despite this, the data revealed total grocery sales rose 1.5% on a value basis in the period, boosted by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
However, sales fell 5.5% on a volume basis and online share of grocery sales dropped to 11.3% from 11.7% in May and were down by 13.1% against the same period last year.
READ MORE: 80% of Britons budget groceries due to cost of living
“It is no surprise that with budgets squeezed some households are less willing or less able to spend on a large online shop,” NielsenIQ’s UK head of retailer and business insight Mike Watkins said.
He also pointed out that shoppers are now more able to shop around for the best prices as well as “shopping little and often” to help manage the weekly food budget.
“Shoppers are starting to make different choices in how to compensate for their rising cost of living,” he added.
“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.”
The data also revealed M&S has continued to have strong momentum, with one in five households shopping at M&S in the last four weeks.
Moreover, Tesco was the only Big 4 grocer to have seen growth, with Aldi and Lidl continuing to grow reporting a combined market share of 19.1%.
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