Waitrose has seen a 9% increase in total weekly sales compared to the same period last year, which it said was driven by early Valentine’s Day purchases and shoppers dining in.
The supermarket chain kicked off its financial year with total sales of £87.64m for the week to 6 February 2010, compared to £80.43m the previous year.
The time frame also coincided with its new menu range of ‘restaurant quality, dine-in dishes’, which hit shelves for the first time last week.
Sales of romantic gifts saw significant increases, such as Valentine’s cupcakes, which were up by 54% on last year, chocolate hearts, up by 47%, and boxes of chocolates, up 31%.
Meanwhile in online shopping, sales of hampers increased 74% on last year and flowers were up by 25%.
Source: Meat Trade News Daily
