Waitrose celebrates “busiest day” thanks to Christmas foods |
| Monday, 29 December 2008 | |
 Waitrose last week celebrated the busiest day in its history, as shoppers looked to get some late Christmas groceries.The John Lewis food chain took £34.4m from more than 879,000 transactions on 23 December, beating the previous record of 754,000 set in December 2006, the firm said on Saturday. According to Waitrose, it benefited from a "late shopping surge" in the last three days before Christmas with a 12% rise in like-for-like sales compared with the same period last year. On Christmas eve alone, sales were 5% up on 2007, while in the full week to Christmas, like-for-like growth was 3.5%. Waitrose said it sold 231,000 fresh and frozen turkeys during the festive period, 350 tonnes of British cooked meats, over 12 million mince pies and millions of boxes of chocolates. In December, it sold 34 million sprouts, a 13% year-on-year rise. The credit crunch has led to people purchasing more cheaper cuts of meat such as pig cheeks, the firm said at the beginning of the month. It added that frozen food items, including raspberries, sausage roles and chestnuts have also been popular among consumers. The company's chief executive Mark Price said this month that he thinks the retail sector is strong enough to withstand many of the challenges posed by the recession. Related Articles
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