Yahoo Finance Cost of living crisis: Annual supermarket bills to rocket by £454
Shoppers are facing a £454 increase to their annual supermarket bills, with butter, milk and dog food among the products subject to the largest hikes amid a cost of living squeeze.
Retail research firm Kantar revealed that grocery price inflation leapt to 9.9% over the four weeks to July 10, rising sharply from 8.3% in the previous month. This marks the second-highest level it had ever recorded since comparable records began in 2008.
The group predicted this figure would continue to rise, and in August would soar past 10%.
Researchers said they saw the fastest increases in prices for products such as dog food, butter and milk.
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The researcher also said that supermarkets have seen a 14% jump in ice cream sales and a 66% rise for sun care products over the month as Britons experienced soaring temperatures.
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: "Grocery prices continue to soar to near record-breaking heights and have jumped by another 1.6 percentage points since last month.
He added that the record level for grocery price inflation was likely to be broken next month.
"All this means that people will be feeling the pinch during our first restriction-free summer since 2019.
"Taking a barbecue as an example, buying burgers, halloumi and coleslaw for some al fresco dining would cost you 13%, 17% and 14% more than it would have this time last year", he warned.
"Buying enough for a typical family barbecue, shoppers will have to put aside £9.94 rather than the £9.01 they spent last year."
German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to see rapid sales growth – with increases of 11.3% and 13.9% respectively – as shoppers turned to them for cheaper prices amid pressure on their household budgets.
Tesco also remained the only one of the big four grocers, which also include Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, to report growth for the quarter.
The weakest performer was Morrisons, which witnessed a 6.7% drop for the period, according to the figures.
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McKevitt noted that own label products were seeing a bump as a result of the inflation, with overall sales of branded groceries down 2.4%, as own-label rose 4.1%, adding that it was “a complex picture”, with grocers looking to negotiate with suppliers to mitigate the impact at the tills as far as possible.
Last month, Heinz baked beans and ketchup disappeared from Tesco shelves after the two heavyweights became embroiled in a pricing dispute.
The figures come as total supermarket sales increased by 0.1% over the 12 weeks to July 10, the first time the market has been in growth since April last year.
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