Wine and chocolate sales soar as shoppers gear up for Halloween and Christmas
Take-home grocery sales in Northern Ireland increased by 2.1% in the year to 4th October 2026 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest data from Worldpanel by Numerator.
With grocery inflation rising to 12.86%, shoppers are cutting back. Visits to stores over the latest period were down 10.5% year on year and shoppers bought fewer items per trip, also down by 9.3% compared to last year.
Eimear Faughnan, Head of Retail for Ireland at Worldpanel by Numerator said shoppers made the most of deals where they could, spending £1.59 billion on promotions, with 28.9% of items sold on offer.
“As back-to-school routines took hold and summer drew to a close, shoppers spent an additional £5.6 million on sweet morning goods, coffee and carbonated soft drinks over the latest 12 weeks,” said Eimear.
“With Halloween and Christmas ranges now on the shelves, they’re clearly looking to treat themselves. Sales of wine rose by 30.4%, chocolate by 23.6% and savoury snacks by 11.2%.”
Branded products increased their share of spend this month to 57.2%, adding an additional £154 million to the take-home grocery market. However, own label sales fell by 2.7%, leaving its share at 41.1%.
Meanwhile, Tesco holds the number one market position, growing its share to 39.4%, up 6.9% from last year in value growth, which came from both new shoppers and bigger baskets, adding £114.6 million to its performance. Sainsbury’s follows with 17.2% share, up 4.2% year on year, with new shoppers adding £28.1 million.
Asda holds 14% value share this period, while Lidl increased its share to 9.9%, up 8.6%. An increase in shoppers and more items in baskets per trip contributed an uplift of £35.2 million to Lidl’s overall performance.
