The UK’s economic recovery may be “bypassing the retail sector’’, according to a report from the British Retail Consortium and accountants KPMG.
Like-for-like sales fell 0.1% between December and February, according to their report. Food sales dropped 1.6% while non-food goods rose 1.2% in the same period.
In a separate study, Kantar Worldpanel found that the cost of groceries has declined by 1.6%, which is the fastest rate on record.
Grocery prices have fallen due to an ongoing price war among the UK’s biggest supermarkets. This has led to a fall in like-for-like food sales.
Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and the Co-operative have all seen their shares of the market decline, says Kantar.
Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl have increased their market shares.
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