So, what have you missed?

How was Christmas for you? Better than your return to work, I’m guessing. A nation shuffled bleary-eyed into the January darkness this morning; muscle memory steered thousands of drivers along recently abandoned commutes; and train travellers faced the terror of all-new delays and cancellations (with all-new fare rises boot). And these were just the lucky ones – the ones not felled by winter viruses or stuck in flooded houses.

But never fear, The Grocer is here to soften your re-entry, and fill you in on what you’ve missed. Reviewing the Christmas papers (and their storm warnings – at least that’s not a problem now… oh), a theme emerges: just how did the high street fare this festive season?

The Telegraph christened the Monday before Christmas ‘Manic Monday’, with predictions of shoppers blowing £2.6m a minute on what was predicted to be the busiest shopping day of the year. But could the days of shoppers queuing outside stores on Boxing Day for the sales to start soon be over? Many big names – M&S among them – gambled on pre-Christmas sales to give them some much needed magic and sparkle.

While the full picture has yet to emerge, analysts were quick off the mark to give exit poll-like stats on the Christmas numbers: data from Ipsos Retail Performance indicated that Boxing Day shopper numbers were up 1.1% year on year, while 27 December saw a 17.3% boost. Springboard, however, suggested high-street footfall on Boxing Day fell 9%, with retail parks winning out.

Waitrose has already claimed a Christmas Week boost, with sales up 26.6% in the week to 28 December, though the prior week saw a 6% drop. Asda, meanwhile, saw record footfall on 23 December, with online sales hitting £5m on both 21 and 22 December. With Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer updating us this week, expect the Christmas picture to become much clearer, soon.

Even without Asda’s figures, it’s clear the rise of online loomed over the whole period, with Amazon expecting 8.30pm on Christmas Day to be the peak time for shoppers to log on in search of bargains. The Sunday Times reported a surge of interest in click & collect deliveries, with even M&S apparently weighing up following Asda’s lead by planting click & collect at London Tube stations. But c&c isn’t satisfying all customers, according to the FT, which found that corporate mail rooms were feeling the strain, with many employees still preferring to have their Christmas parcels delivered to work.

Those who feel click & collect is altogether too fiddly and unproven may find themselves cheering comments by Waitrose boss Mark Price, who found time to take a swipe at supermarket loyalty cards. Price told The Telegraph he thought card points were “meaningless”. “Giving free coffee or free newspapers is disruptive to the market, but I think that is what customers want, I don’t think they want a point,” he said, referring to the myWaitrose card (which was praised in these very pages not so long ago). Mind you, not everyone is a fan of the ’Trose’s generosity, with commenters on the supermarket’s Facebook page complaining that the free coffee was luring in the wrong sort of crowd (people carrying – can you bear it? – Tesco bags).

Away from the retail fray, there was news that McVitie’s Digestives are to switch back to their classic, ‘dunkable’ recipe, eschewing lower-fat formula changes brought in at great expense four years ago (you can read more on that in this week’s issue).

Hovis owner Premier Foods was reported to be lining up a £300m rights issue as it prepared for more debt restructuring; Nestlé is apparently looking to perk up international sales of its Nespresso capsules by devoting more resources to “long”, milky coffees; and EU brewers plotted to challenge US tax rules.

Elsewhere, Cornish Clotted Cream makers are set to do battle over a change to its PDO, and a study has suggested each cigarette in a pack should get its own printed health warning – a prospect perhaps marginally more appealing to the tobacco industry than the conclusion of another study, which has called for tax on cigarettes to be tripled.

If it’s been this busy while we’ve been away, imagine what the rest of 2014 has in store. As ever, The Grocer will keep you informed.