Supermarket now controls 28.5% of grocery market, with sales at UK stores up 4% in six weeks to 4 January
Tesco has recorded its “biggest ever Christmas”, with the UK’s largest supermarket chain landing its biggest share of the festive shopping trolley since 2016.
Sales at established UK stores rose 4% in the six weeks to 4 January, with fresh food performing particularly strongly and clothing and homeware sales also up.
Continue reading...Message came after northern city of Ghent posted tips for recycling the conifer as a dish
At a time when most people have probably polished off their holiday leftovers, Belgium’s food agency has issued a surprising seasonal health warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree.
The message on Tuesday came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.
Continue reading...Despite its awful name it’s my favourite time of year, an excuse to pause any activity – including new year celebrations
And so we find ourselves again at the Christmas perineum, the time between the end of the yuletide celebrations and before the new year shenanigans begin, and a phrase so awful I have felt compelled to use it as often as possible ever since the dark day I learned it about five years ago. Sorry.
Watch less Brooklyn Nine-Nine every evening;
Add a new meal to my culinary repertoire and take the total to nearly three;
Work harder, walk more, cull wardrobe, sort finances, declutter house, clean more, lose weight, see if this improves life or makes me wish I was dead. You’ve got to find out at some point, I reckon.
Continue reading...Report for final three months of year shows pressure driven by rising costs and weak consumer confidence
The number of UK retailers on the brink of collapse soared by a quarter in the final three months of the year, driven by a combination of rising business costs and weak consumer confidence, according to a report.
The proportion of retail businesses classed as being in “critical” financial distress jumped 25% to 2,124 in the fourth quarter compared with the third, the insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor said.
Continue reading...Data may reflect shift in behaviour influenced by cost of living crisis or front-loading of spending
Fewer consumers made the journey to high streets and shopping centres in search of Boxing Day discounts this year.
Footfall across UK retailers was down 8.9% as of 3pm on Thursday, compared with Boxing Day in 2023, according to data from MRI Software.
Continue reading...Some media outlets are already offering forecasts nearly three weeks out – but the BoM advises people to check in on 18 December
Wondering whether to pack a poncho or sunhat for carols? Locking in plans for a picnic or pool party on 25 December?
Some media outlets are already offering a Christmas Day forecast – nearly three weeks out from the festivities – but is it too early to rely on the festive weather forecast?
Continue reading...Richard Reyes has delivered Christmas gifts to low-income children in Houston area for decades in his red zoot suit
A heart attack and subsequent surgery are preventing the Mexican-American version of Santa known to generations of Texas children as Pancho Claus from suiting up this Christmas.
Yet members of Richard Reyes’s community have taken it upon themselves to organize toy drives – and even don his iconic look – to keep his spirit alive for his scores of believers.
Continue reading...All-star version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, spliced together from previous versions, falls short of the No 1 success of those earlier hits
The 40th anniversary version of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has failed to enter this week’s Top 40, reaching No 45.
The new version of the song was made up of performances spliced together from three previous versions, in an arrangement by producer Trevor Horn. But despite featuring the unusual A-list juxtaposition of George Michael, Sinead O’Connor, Chris Martin, One Direction and more, the new version has not yet matched the success of its predecessors, which each went straight to No 1 in 1984, 2004 and 2014.
Continue reading...Sales of Christmas pet lines up 964% year-on-year at Waitrose online as people spend more on pet care
Unlike buying a present for a fussy father-in-law or an awkward aunt, a dog won’t complain if their treats aren’t the latest, and a cat is not likely to turn its nose up at a Christmas tree-shaped scratch tree.
Perhaps that’s why Britons are so happy to spend on their pets this Christmas, with sales of seasonal pet treats, toys and food booming.
Continue reading...British Retail Consortium figures come alongside data showing a fall in household disposable income
Shoppers’ ability to afford Christmas treats has been put under threat as retailers warned November could mark a turning point for inflation, with the recent fall in prices slowing amid increased fresh produce costs and fewer discounts on the shelves.
Shop prices fell by 0.6% in November, compared with a fall of 0.8% in October, according to the latest report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and research firm NielsenIQ. The slowdown in deflation was driven by non-food goods and a slight increase in fresh food prices, including seafood.
Continue reading...Supermarket fizz bursts the prestigious French label’s bubble in blind tastings by consumer group Which?
Champagne at prosecco prices? Every little helps. Tesco’s Finest champagne has triumphed over the prestigious French label Moët & Chandon in a festive quaff test.
The Tesco Finest premier cru brut champagne received the top score of 82% in a blind taste test conducted by the consumer group Which?. The £25-a-bottle bubbly was hailed by judges for its “nutty aroma and fresh, fruity flavours”. The supermarket fizz beat Moët & Chandon, which scored 77% and at £44 is almost twice as expensive.
Continue reading...Twenty-nine-metre tall fir destined to be chopped down and transported to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican
Environmental campaigners in Italy’s northern Trentino province have started a campaign to stop the felling of a 200-year-old fir tree intended to form the centrepiece of the Vatican’s Christmas decorations.
The so-called “Green Giant” is 29 metres tall and is due to be chopped down next week in a forest in the Ledro valley before being transported to the Vatican and positioned in St Peter’s Square, where it will be unveiled on 9 December.
Continue reading...TV chef, who has signed up for bakery chain’s first ever festive advert, says she is a fan of its sausage rolls
Nigella Lawson has issued an impassioned paean to the Greggs sausage roll, amid reports of a banger-based dust-up that threatened to cast a shadow over her appearance in the bakery chain’s first ever Christmas advert.
Greggs confirmed on Sunday that the celebrity chef and cookbook author had agreed to star in its inaugural Christmas promotion, in which Lawson will purr over such delicacies as vegan festive bakes.
Continue reading...Nearly all are deemed ‘high-risk’ and so will need customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees make the journey into the UK to take pride of place in living rooms across the country.
But the the cross-border operation faces a new hurdle this year. Plants coming from the EU will be subject to post-Brexit border checks that importers are warning will increase costs for sellers, and probably push up prices for consumers.
Continue reading...Authoritarian president moves up holiday celebrations yet again to apparently distract from political crisis
“Whatever happened to Christmas?” Frank Sinatra once asked. In Venezuela, the answer is that it has been brought forward to October.
The country’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, made the curious announcement that this year’s festivities would begin in October on Monday, in the midst of a political bleak midwinter for his crisis-stricken land.
Continue reading...British brand affected by continued slowdown in luxury demand during cost of living crisis
Burberry has warned that annual profits will be sharply lower than previously expected after consumers left its expensive trenchcoats, bags and scarves off their Christmas shopping lists.
The luxury British brand said trading had been affected by a continued slowdown in luxury demand after rises in the cost of living and increases to interest rates globally.
Continue reading...Reduced cost pressures and popular festive bakes and chocolate orange muffins boost bakery chain
Greggs has hailed easing inflationary pressures after the UK’s biggest bakery chain rang up bumper Christmas sales amid less travel disruption and enthusiasm for seasonal specialities such as festive bakes and chocolate orange muffins.
The company said sales at established stores had risen 9.4% in the three months to 30 December as it attracted more customers with extended opening hours and by offering online ordering.
Continue reading...Consumers buy more items – including plenty of parsnips and sprouts – to beat last year’s spend by 7%
UK shoppers spent £13.7bn on groceries in the run-up to Christmas – 7% more than a year before – as they sought out bargains and switched to discounters to try to offset price inflation.
The number of items bought rose by 2% in December as prices climbed by 6.7%, according to analysts at Kantar, although that was down from 9.6% in November – making it the biggest monthly drop in inflation the data firm has ever recorded.
Continue reading...The 14-year-old was then allegedly shot and wounded by his 15-year-old brother in retaliation; both are now in custody
A Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.
The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas county sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Continue reading...Weaker Christmas spending amid cost of living crisis and fewer shops opening cut visitor numbers by 30% on 2019
Retailers have recorded a small pickup in Boxing Day footfall, but visits to stores remained well below pre-pandemic levels as several high street chains stayed shut.
Retailers have been braced for weak spending over the Christmas period as the UK economy stagnates amid the cost of living crisis.
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