The hit-and-miss summer weather is hitting sales of burgers, steaks and chilled salads as consumers keep their barbecues in the shed this year.

According to the latest data from grocery-market specialist Kantar, Irish supermarket customers have spent €800,000 less on the products in the four weeks to July 7 when compared to the same period in 2023.

Overall, the value of take-home grocery sales grew 6.6%, which Kantar said was driven by inflation rather than an increase in volumes purchased.

While sales of barbecue items were lower, sales of soups and hot beverages increased by €1.8m, again probably a reflection of the less than ideal weather.

On prices, Kantar said there was a small uptick in the level of overall grocery inflation to 2.6%, the first rise after 15 months of declines.

Inflation

The rate of inflation remains low, and is far below the record levels seen in early 2023.

Shoppers are clearly still looking for bargains as they spent an additional €67.8m on supermarket own label products.

Dunnes continues to be the largest supermarket chain by market share, holding 23.2%, with Tesco just behind on 23.1%. Lidl is on 13.9% and Aldi is at 12%, giving the discount supermarkets a combined market share of 25.9%.