Nielsen’s data showed that over the past 12 weeks, sales fell at every major supermarket, with Marks & Spencer experiencing the largest decline (-3.6%) followed by Morrisons (-3.1%) and Waitrose (-2.9%). Discounters did better, with Lidl sales up 12.8%, Aldi’s rose by 8.5%. Iceland also experienced a lift of +0.2%. 

Kantar data saw ecommerce specialist Ocado doing particularly well with its customers buying online more frequently than last year.

Both companies pointed to the year-on-year drop being affected by last year’s record summer spending.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “Last year people shopped more frequently and closer to home as they topped up the cupboards while enjoying the sunshine and the men’s football World Cup. This year households are making one fewer trip, which may not sound like much but is enough to tip the market into decline. In addition, like-for-like grocery inflation fell marginally to 0.9%, which is good news for consumers but has made it harder for retailers to achieve value growth.”