An online sales boom is killing supermarket profits
The chains are victims of their own pandemic success
LOCKDOWN IS BOOMTIME for supermarkets. Restrictions on the hospitality trade and working from home means consumers are getting more of their calories from their kitchens so, although overall GDP has shrunk by around a tenth in the past year, supermarkets’ sales have grown fast. Tesco, the biggest chain, reported a 7.2% increase in like-for-like sales in the past quarter, the fastest rise in decades. Sainsbury’s, second by market share, saw sales rise by 8.6%.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The wrong kind of sales”
Britain January 23rd 2021
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