Central England Co-op has revealed some of the unusual items customers have been stocking up on during the current heatwave.
As temperatures across the country reached over 35C in some places, people looking to take advantage of the hot weather visited the retailer to pick up a range of items from soft drinks to snacks.
Some of the most standout or unusual findings included a spike in the sales of banana flavoured milk, Greek natural yoghurt, Galia melons and even trifle!
Sales since last Friday revealed that:
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- Soft drinks rose by 1% while squash sales leapt by 43% compared to the same weekend last year
- Mixers were also on the up with tonic water rising by 16%, but the biggest growth came in ginger ale up 46%
- More unusual rises saw Co-op Banana Flavoured Milk jump by 29%, salted peanuts 13%, Co-op Chocolate Trifle 42% and Co-op Galia Melon by 329% – four times as many as this time in 2019
- A rise in people making smoothies saw fruit sales jump by 3.4%, including two times as many strawberry punnets being snapped up, and salads were the biggest growing category overall compared to last year with Co-op Cocktail On The Vine Tomatoes jumping a whopping 177%
- People looking for something to go with their salads stocked up on artisan breads such as sourdough roasted tomato and basil, with sales up by 412%
- Beers, wines and spirits saw large growth with typical summer drinks such as Pimms (+217%) and Aperol (+170%) nearly tripling in sales
Marta Foley, Customer Analytics Manager, said: “These findings show how customers react during a heatwave by not only going for the things they love but also items that are a little out of the ordinary.
“Salad, fruit, drink, beers, wines and spirits would all normally form part of a shopping basket at this time of year, but we were surprised to see people picking up everything from trifles to banana flavoured milk.
“This just goes to show that no matter what people want Central England Co-op stores are at the heart of the community for all shopping needs.”
