Tesco, Waitrose and Aldi have revealed they are expecting to see record-breaking numbers ice cream sales as the UK gears up for the heatwave which will hit the country this weekend.
The three supermarkets have revealed their biggest sellers for the past week as consumers prepare themselves for the high temperatures, with the jump in ice cream sales set to break a record for the amount bought in a single week.
Waitrose has revealed that sales of ice cream and lollies have already risen by 20% against last week’s numbers, and are expected to reach record highs this week.
Tesco said it expects to sell 9 million ice creams and lollies this week alone, while demand for the iced treats is also soaring at Aldi, with sales up 150% last week (cp 2021).
Online grocery specialist Ocado said searches for ice-cream and ice lollies had doubled this week, with searches for dog ice-cream up 87%.
READ MORE: Ice Ice Baby: Iceland creates
‘chill out zone’ as UK heatwave takes hold
The Met Office has issued an ‘amber’ extreme heat warning for much of England and Wales on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures predicted to reach up to 38C in London.
In light of this news, Waitrose also revealed that suncare product sales were up by 220%, while searches for canned cocktails on its website Waitrose.com were up by 188% on last month.
Aldi said it had sold more rosé wine last week than any other weekend over the last year, with online sales of electric fans up by more than 5,000%. Sales of paddling pools and deodorant sales had also reached record heights.
Paddling pools also got a boost at Tesco, which sold 14 times more over the past week than the week before, while sales of inflatable sprinklers and water games increased by 1,568%.
Unsurprisingly, barbeque food has also been a popular choice, with Tesco selling 2 million packs of sausages, nearly 3 million punnets of strawberries and more than 5.5 million bottles of wine over the past week alone.
Helen Sutton, ice cream and frozen desserts buying manager for Tesco, said: “As Brits try to cool down in the coming days, we’re predicting record numbers of customers adding ice cream and lollies to their trollies – as well as BBQ favourites like sausages and burgers.”
The number of shoppers searching for barbecue food on Ocado.com also more than doubled.
Earlier this week a London branch of Iceland created a customer ‘chill-out zone’ in the freezer aisle to help shoppers cope with the soaring temperatures across the UK.
The move comes following research from the value supermarket which revealed that (58%) of Brits have gone into a supermarket freezer aisle to cool down when the weather is too hot.
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