Unusual mix of products lead rise in heatwave sales at Central England Co-op

Posted by rob smyth | Published: 12/08/2020


Central England Co-op has revealed some of the unusual items customers have been stocking up on during the current heatwave.

As temperatures across the country reached over 35C in some places, people looking to take advantage of the hot weather visited the retailer to pick up a range of items from soft drinks to snacks.

Some of the most standout or unusual findings included a spike in the sales of banana flavoured milk, Greek natural yoghurt, Galia melons and even trifle!

Sales since last Friday revealed that:

  • Soft drinks rose by 1% while squash sales leapt by 43% compared to the same weekend last year
  • Mixers were also on the up with tonic water rising by 16%, but the biggest growth came in ginger ale up 46%
  • More unusual rises saw Co-op Banana Flavoured Milk jump by 29%, salted peanuts 13%, Co-op Chocolate Trifle 42% and Co-op Galia Melon by 329% - four times as many as this time in 2019
  • A rise in people making smoothies saw fruit sales jump by 3.4%, including two times as many strawberry punnets being snapped up, and salads were the biggest growing category overall compared to last year with Co-op Cocktail On The Vine Tomatoes jumping a whopping 177%
  • People looking for something to go with their salads stocked up on artisan breads such as sourdough roasted tomato and basil, with sales up by 412%
  • Beers, wines and spirits saw large growth with typical summer drinks such as Pimms (+217%) and Aperol (+170%) nearly tripling in sales

Marta Foley, Customer Analytics Manager, said: “These findings show how customers react during a heatwave by not only going for the things they love but also items that are a little out of the ordinary.

“Salad, fruit, drink, beers, wines and spirits would all normally form part of a shopping basket at this time of year, but we were surprised to see people picking up everything from trifles to banana flavoured milk.

“This just goes to show that no matter what people want Central England Co-op stores are at the heart of the community for all shopping needs.”

 

 

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About Central England Co-operative

 

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral and property investment.

 

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

 

Our 7,900 colleagues who serve Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

 

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

 

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

 

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

 

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

 

Phone - 01543 421390

 

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop