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Sales of grocery items grew in the first quarter of 2017, despite the best efforts of the Beast from the East and Storm Emma to keep shoppers at home.
Grocery sales grew by 3.8% for the 12 weeks ending 25 March 2018, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
“Although shoppers had upped their spend in preparation for the Beast from the East, the length of the storm meant that cupboards were emptied by the time it came to an end," said Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel.
"As a result, in the week following the cold snap, Irish households spent €20.33 more than usual on restocking their kitchens."
Easter
Faughnan also said that Easter played a big part in this.
“Sales of Easter eggs and seasonal chocolate confectionery in March rocketed by 75.2% compared to this time last year, with price rises of 2.4% doing little to deter customers from their chocolate fix.''
Irish shoppers spent a total of €20.6m on the holiday chocolate.
Competition remains tight among the retailers.
Although its market share is 0.2 percentage points behind both Dunnes Stores and SuperValu, which both command a 22.1% market share, Tesco experienced its strongest sales growth in over six years – up 7.1%.
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