Confectionery lovers are going to have to splash the cash this Christmas if they want to gorge themselves on the usual festive fix of chocolates.
While the average cost of an item of chocolate Christmas confectionery has risen a fairly modest 4% year-on-year - from £2.47 to £2.58 - the typical price of an Advent calendar has soared by 16%, according to Brandview data.
The average price of counting down the 24 days to Christmas - after promotions - was £2.62 in the past week [9 to 15 November], up from an average of £2.25 in the same period in November 2011.
The price rise follows a slight decrease in the depth of deals offered on Advent calendars - the typical saving is currently 25.3% compared with 26.5% a year ago. The way retailers promote Advent calendars has also changed, with a shift away from the two-for deals that accounted for 55.1% of offers a year ago. Two-fors now make up just 35% of promotions, while the proportion of straight money-off deals has risen to 57.5% of all offers.
As the festivities draw nearer and shoppers think of hanging something sweet on their Christmas tree, they will also be paying fractionally more for chocolate tree decorations than a year ago - at £2.09 a unit this week compared with £2.07 in the same week in 2011.
Wet weather keeps fruit & veg prices high
There’s still only one story in fruit and veg - the weather. Potatoes have been hit especially hard by the wet, cold weather in the UK and Europe, leading to reduced yields and more waste. At £190.07/t, wholesale prices are 87.6% up year-on-year, although have eased a little in the past month.
Root veg prices have softened in the past month, but prices remain substantially higher year-on-year, with carrots 53.5% up as a result of lower yields and delayed harvests in northern Europe.
Wet weather, again, is to blame for higher prices for iceberg lettuce, with poor availability across key growing regions leading to a 31.9% year-on-year price hike, and onions, which have fallen seasonally over the past month but remain 27% more expensive year-on-year.
UK peppers offer some relief from price rises, with prices down 6.7% year-on-year and 15.8% month-on-month as Spanish supply takes over.
And they are going to be paying more for their larger confectionery purchases too, with tins and packs of chocolates weighing 600g or more up from an average of £5.72 a year ago to £6.24.
It would appear the much-publicised reduction in the size of chocolate products - officially recognised this week by the Office of National Statistics - hasn’t kept a lid on the price of tins of chocs, although the hike has been exacerbated by a reduction in promotional activity. The number of deals has dropped from 18 to 11 in a year, while the typical saving has fallen from the 36.3% seen in 2011 to 33.6% this year.
But one area where there is a little Christmas cheer - for consumers, at least - is selection packs. Shoppers will be paying £2.43 for a typical pack - down fractionally from the £2.47 they paid last year.
This isn’t such good news for independent retailers, however, with 63% of indie retailers polled by The Grocer saying they won’t be stocking selection packs this year because of the heavy promotional activity undertaken by the mults.
One type of product that is more likely to make it on to independent shelves is branded tubes of chocolates. These have dropped in price from an average of £1.18 - after promotions - a year ago to £1.09 this week.
With the number of promotions also falling year-on-year (although the average saving has crept up fractionally), this has been driven by a decline in base price from £1.32 last year to £1.22.
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