One in three Brits plans to stockpile food and drink this month for Christmas
One third of consumers have already stockpiled food and drink items for Christmas, or are likely to before the end of the month.
A survey from Lumina Intelligence found that more than half (56 per cent) of consumers were somewhat worried about media coverage of others stockpiling. 10 per cent said they were very worried.
The youngest consumers (18-24) and the eldest consumers (65+) were the least likely to be worried about shortages from people stockpiling.
Just six per cent said they had already purchased food and drink items ahead of Christmas.
10 per cent said they definitely would buy products by the end of the month while 18 per cent said they probably would.
Confectionary and crisps were the categories that consumers were most likely to buy ahead of the festive season.
Alcohol and tinned and packaged products were also popular choices for consumers to buy in advance.
Blonnie Whist, insight director at Lumina Intelligence said, “Christmas this year will be incredibly different to last, when travel restrictions and last-minute regional lockdowns ended most people’s festive plans.
“Consumers will be looking to make up for lost time and with no restrictions surrounding gatherings we can expect big celebrations. However, media coverage surrounding product shortages due to the HGV driver shortage, Brexit and Covid is concerning shoppers, with some already stockpiling ahead of Christmas and many more likely to follow suit.”
Whist said retailers should expect a “bumper year” for sales but should communicate with shoppers to ensure they do not rush to panic buy essential items as they did at the start of the first Covid lockdown in 2020.
Morrisons’ chairman downplayed concerns over the supermarket supply chain this Christmas while other retailers have warned of slight food price rises and empty shelves.
Andy Higginson said he was “not worried” about the challenges arising from a shortage of goods drivers and reports forecasting empty shelves this autumn, the BBC reported.
The supermarket boss said problems in the supply chain were “well publicised” and “slightly overblown”.
“We’re probably looking at, for food overall…mid-single digit increases which is much higher than we’ve had in recent years,” Tesco’s chairman John Allan, told ITV last week.
However, Allan added: “I would hate people to get the impression that we’re going to have a terrible Christmas, they’ve got to go out and panic-buy – so much effort is going into averting that.”