Grocery price inflation ticked back up to as of the start of November as supermarkets recorded their best sales month so far this year, new figures from market research firm Kantar shows.
According to the data, in the 12 weeks leading up to November 3, grocery prices increased by 3.3% compared to the same period last year. At the start of October, the inflation rate was at 2.76%.
The data also shows that in the four weeks to November 3, grocers saw their sales increase 6.4% year-on-year reaching €1.16bn.
Households shopped more often during this period — up 2.6% compared to last year with Kantar suggesting that families were stocking up for Halloween, the bank holiday, the mid-term break, and Christmas.
The data also showed that €8.9m more was spent on chocolate, €2.4m more was spent on savoury snacks and €1.6m more was spent on sweets.
In addition, shoppers spent an additional combined €774,000 on flour, fruits, nuts, icing, and cake mixes.
Dunnes Stores continues to lead retailers in its share of consumer spend, accounting for 24.5%. The supermarket's customers increased their average number of trips by 7.3% adding an additional €55.9m to overall performance.
Tesco holds 23.4% of the market while SuperValu holds 19.7%.
Lidl holds 13.5% of the market while Aldi holds 11.5%.
Over the three months to November 3, Irish households spent an additional €40m on products that were on promotion compared to the previous period. The share of products sold on promotion sits at 18.5%.