Sales of staple foods such as milk, bread and butter surged 147 per cent in Munster and Leinster counties put under an orange weather warning this week, data from SuperValu show.
The supermarket chain also saw a 61 per cent increase in sales of fire logs and firelighters in advance of the freezing temperatures. Sales of briquettes rose 80.4 per cent.
“The ongoing freezing weather conditions have had a clear impact on SuperValu customer purchasing habits in recent days. Customers are prioritising staple products such as bread, milk, eggs, meat and fish to see them through the uncertain weather period,” said managing director Luke Hanlon.
Across the country, the amount of bread items purchased in stores rose 7 per cent from Saturday, January 4th to Sunday, January 5th compared to the previous weekend.
SuperValu said it sold more than 100,000 additional loaves of bread across the two days.
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Sales in the fresh meat and fish category rose by 50 per cent across the cold snap. The data also shows a 33 per cent rise in products from the home baking section of the stores.
The data for bread sales was compared with the weekend of December 27th to 28th. All other sales data was compared with a Saturday and Sunday in early November.
SuperValu has 220 stores across Ireland and according to owner Musgrave’s annual report it saw €3.5 billion in retail sales in 2023.
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