The average household grocery bill has increased by €1,000 over the last year as a full year since the first national lockdown in Ireland approaches.
New figures from Kantar show that take-home grocery sales in Ireland grew by 16.3% in the 12 weeks to February 21.
Even stronger growth was seen during the past month with sales up 17.7%, the highest level since November 2020, as shoppers spent an additional €151.1m.
Kantar said that all those extra meals and snacks at home led to an extra €2 billion spent on take-home groceries, including shoppers spending €7.6m on tea and €19.5m on instant coffee to get their caffeine fix at home.
But it also noted that with social distancing and limits on gatherings continuing, sales of shampoo were down 0.8% and conditioner 2.7% in the past 12 weeks, while deodorant sales were down 5.4%.
Staying at home more and an emphasis on handwashing has also meant a steep decline in sales of cold and flu remedies – with cold treatments dropping 55%, cough liquids 60% and lozenges 42%.
But liquid soap continued to be an exception in these supermarket aisles, and sales were up 99.5% in the most recent 12 weeks.
The last 12 weeks under review included Valentine's Day and Pancake Tuesday and Kantar said that consumers continued to make the most of events they could safely celebrate at home in lockdown.
They spent an additional €3.2m on boxed chocolates, while sales of flour, eggs and syrup grew by 56%, 21% and 14% respectively.
Today's figures also show that online grocery sales had another record-breaking month as shoppers ordered €63m worth of take-home groceries, accounting for 6.3% of all sales.
"Online's share of the grocery market has had an extraordinary uplift compared with the pre-pandemic level of 2.7%," commented Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar.
"Lockdown may well have converted some previously reluctant digital customers long term - 241,500 people made an order in February, compared with 114,800 last year. They are also using services more often, completing 21.7% more digital orders a month," she added.
SuperValu has the biggest market share of the grocery market at 22.3%, as it grew sales by 20.9%. Kantar noted that it was the only retailer to attract new shoppers into its stores and its customers traded up when they were there as they spent €70m more on branded goods than this time last year.
Dunnes increased its sales by 9.7% this period as its customers picked up extra items in store and continued to spend more per buyer than at any other retailer at €618.60. This totalled an additional €62.5m spent over the last 12 weeks.
Meanwhile, Lidl was once again the fastest growing retailer at 21.8%, with basket sizes increasing by 14.9% year on year. Aldi customers spent an additional €57.1m this period, driving 13.4% growth.
Tesco shoppers added an additional 3.6 items to their baskets this period, more than customers at any other retailer, and helped the grocer's overall sales to rise by 18%.
