Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
If this summer’s supermarket food trends are anything to go by, cookshops should be putting away the salad spinners and barbecue tools and bringing out the soup bowls and gravy boats instead.
With August likely to be the wettest on record and temperatures disappointing, food shoppers are turning in their thousands to traditional, warming winter dishes, according to Asda.
The retailer says that comfort food is currently firmly at the top of people’s shopping lists as they leave the usual seasonal summer fare on the supermarket shelves.
For instance, Asda’s sales of gravy have risen by 50% as salads give way to roast dinners, while sales of soup – which are extremely susceptible to the weather and usually peak in December and January – are up by a quarter.
On the dessert front, custard sales are up 70% and rice pudding 52%. On the other hand, sales of ice pops, which should be going great guns at this time of year, are down 32%.
The lack of suitable days for having a barbecue is also evident in shopping habits. Sales of barbecue meat ranges have dropped 40%, while salad items are showing a 10% decline.
