Fake tan sales boost grocery spending as demand for sun cream falls

Falling inflation, football and fake tan dominated grocery shopping this month as rising consumer confidence and Euros excitement was dampened by the relentlessly wet summer, figures show.

Grocery price inflation fell to 1.6%, down from June’s 2.1% and its lowest figure since September 2021, according to analysts Kantar.

The decrease coincided with the fastest rise in monthly footfall so far this year, with Britons making 2% more trips to the supermarket this period than they did one year ago.

As household financial pressures eased in the UK, sales of branded products increased by 3.6%, outpacing own-label items at 2.7%.

The soggy summer has seen sales of cold and flu treatments jump by 35%, while sun cream sales were down by 10% and sales of fake tan rose by 16% compared with last year, when the UK enjoyed the warmest June on record.

Meanwhile, England’s progression through the Euros 2024 tournament saw football fans driving beer sales up by an average of 13% on the days that the team played compared with the same day in the previous week.

Fraser McKevitt, Head of Retail & Consumer Insight at Kantar, said: "The retail landscape looks very different from 2010 when the last Labour government was in power – and so do our shopping trolleys."

Online supermarket Ocado was the fastest-growing grocer for the fifth month in a row, with sales up by 10.7% over the 12 weeks to 7 July.

Waitrose gained market share for the first time since January 2022, achieving a 0.1 percentage point rise to 4.5% as spending at the upmarket grocer increased by 3.3%, while Britain’s largest grocer Tesco achieved its biggest share gain since November 2021, taking 27.7% of the market.