British supermarkets raked in £10.8bn in March with sales ‘even higher than Christmas’ from 20% rise in sales as shoppers flooded stores during coronavirus lockdown
- Supermarket sales were the highest they have ever been in the UK during March
- 88 per cent of British households went to the shops between March 16 and 19
- They made an average of five trips during that time, according to new data
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British supermarkets were the busiest they have ever been this month, with sales 20.6 per cent up.
Shoppers spent £10.8billion in supermarkets in March, bringing sales levels even higher than Christmas.
New data from Kantar shows March sales as the highest on record, with 88 per cent of families visiting the shops between March 16 and 19 – four days before the country was put on lockdown.
Britons flooded to Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons to stockpile essential goods.
But now the trend for panic buying has resulted in an alarming amount of food waste, with bins nationwide overflowing with unused food and drink.
March was the busiest month for UK supermarkets on record with sales up 20.6 per cent in the past four weeks. Pictured: Long queues outside Waitrose in south London this week
Pictures of bins piled high with vegetables, fruit and bread have been uploaded on social media already this week.
And over the weekend, loaves of bread, bunches of bananas and unopened packs of chicken products were tossed aside after they went past their use by date in Derby.
Unopened tins of food and packets of pasta filled a black bin in Bury, Greater Manchester.
A picture of the bin was shared to Twitter, prompting social media users to slam the panic buyers as ‘disgraceful’.
Panic about the killer bug prompted Britons to flock to supermarkets over the last few weeks to stock up on basic, long-lasting food.
Since then, strict lockdown rules were introduced, instructing Britons to only leave the house once a day and to shop only for essentials.
Supermarkets are offering elderly customers priority time slots for home deliveries and cutting down on how many shoppers are allowed to be in the store at the same time.
A bin full of discarded potatoes (left) was spotted and another was seen full to the brim of fresh produce
Over the weekend, loaves of bread, bunches of bananas and unopened packs of chicken products were tossed aside after they went past their use by date.