In 2022/23, the average household in the United Kingdom spent around 63.5 British pounds a week on food and non-alcoholic drinks, compared with 72.7 pounds in 2001/02.

The average cost of a shopping basket, consisting of 79 items, was the lowest at the *********************** and amounted to ****** British pounds as of March 2025. It was over ** pounds cheaper than the corresponding range of goods at Waitrose. Below that, the second most expensive basket was the one offered by *****, an online supermarket operating in the UK. The UK grocery market In 2021, the entire grocery market of the United Kingdom was worth ***** billion British pounds. This figure was forecast to increase to over *** billion British pounds by 2027. Grocery stores Supermarkets are the most profitable store form currently in the UK. Sales generated by supermarkets came to around ** billion pounds. In comparison, discounters made close to ** billion in sales, while the online channel accounted for around 22 billion. Sainsbury’s operated**** supermarkets at the end of the 2023/24 financial year and another**** convenience stores.

In June 2018, the price of the average grocery basket amounted to ***** British pounds in the United Kingdom. Compared to the same month of the previous year this constitutes an increase of *** British pounds. The basket value had been higher in three different months prior to *********. The entire grocery market in the UK was estimated to be worth ***** billion pounds.

The leader on the British grocery market

Tesco has been the leading grocery retailer in Great Britain for over five years running. However, in September 2019 the company had their lowest market share since the beginning of 2015. Since then the company managed to recover about *** percent of its market share. Tesco operated ***** stores in the UK and Ireland.

The Irish market

Tesco is also a relevant operator of grocery stores in Ireland as well and was able to claim a market share of **** percent for the year ending in September of 2019. The company shared the second place on the market with SuperValu and both companies had a market share that was less than one percent smaller than that of the market leader Dunnes.

This statistic shows the average monthly amount spent on a dog by owners in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2018, by cost type. The figures are based on a survey in which respondents were asked how much money they spend per month on their dogs. On average, dog owners in the UK spend *** British pounds per month on their pet, with a high proportion on this expense going on dog food, at around ** British pounds.

The average for 2021 based on 165 countries was 105.854 index points. The highest value was in South Korea: 208.84 index points and the lowest value was in India: 58.17 index points. The indicator is available from 2017 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

This statistic shows the average monthly amount spent on a cat by owners in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2018, by cost type. The figures are based on a survey in which respondents were asked how much money they spend per month on their cats. On average, cat owners in the UK spend 100 British pounds per month on their pet, with a high proportion on this expense going on cat food, at around ** British pounds.

In 2016, the average weekly expenditure by individuals in the United Kingdom (UK) exhibited generational differences. The expenditure on grocery purchases of food tended to increase with age, reaching an average 55 British pounds a week in the group of respondents aged 45 to 54 years old. Younger consumers commonly spent more money on takeaways.

Food delivery and online grocery shopping

The UK online grocery market was the second largest online grocery market worldwide in 2015, with forecasts retaining that position up to 2020. However, in May and June of 2019, the monthly value of internet food sales decreased by 4.5 and 5.7 percent respectively for stores that predominantly sell food, casting doubt on future developments in the market.

Restaurant industry landscape

Up until 2018, the eating-out market in the United Kingdom (UK) increased in value for nine consecutive years, reaching 89.5 billion British pounds. With approximately 22 million visitors of pub restaurants was the most popular eating-out destination in 2018.

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 124.9 points in January 2025, down 2.1 points from December 2024. The highest value for the index in the past 23 years was reached in March 2022. However, the rate of food price increases has been decreasing since.

Food prices worldwide The annual FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) by category shows that the price of vegetable oils grew by a particularly large margin. One of the factors that influenced the spike in oil prices worldwide during 2020 and 2021 were the supply-chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, after the war in Ukraine, shipping costs and grain prices also had a noticeable impact on global food prices. Global food prices are calculated to have increased by 3.68 percent, due to changes in shipping costs and grain prices. The European Union (EU) has experienced a particularly high increase in the annual consumer prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, as compared to other selected countries worldwide. Inflation in Europe

The inflation rate for food in the EU grew from 0.2 percent in May 2021 to 19.2 percent in March 2023, as compared to the same month in the previous year. In the following months, the food inflation started decreasing again, reaching 1.86 percent in April 2024. The overall inflation rate in the Euro area reached its peak in December 2022 at 9.2 percent. The rate has since fallen to 2.4 percent in December 2024. As measured by the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), inflation rates in Europe were highest in Turkey, North Macedonia, and Romania as of December 2024.

The UK inflation rate was 3.6 percent in June 2025, up from 3.4 percent in the previous month, and the fastest rate of inflation since January 2024. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. Due to this long period of high inflation, UK consumer prices have increased by over 20 percent in the last three years. As of the most recent month, prices were rising fastest in the communications sector, at 6.1 percent, but were falling in both the furniture and transport sectors, at -0.3 percent and -0.6 percent, respectively.
The Cost of Living Crisis High inflation is one of the main factors behind the ongoing Cost of Living Crisis in the UK, which, despite subsiding somewhat in 2024, is still impacting households going into 2025. In December 2024, for example, 56 percent of UK households reported their cost of living was increasing compared with the previous month, up from 45 percent in July, but far lower than at the height of the crisis in 2022. After global energy prices spiraled that year, the UK's energy price cap increased substantially. The cap, which limits what suppliers can charge consumers, reached 3,549 British pounds per year in October 2022, compared with 1,277 pounds a year earlier. Along with soaring food costs, high-energy bills have hit UK households hard, especially lower income ones that spend more of their earnings on housing costs. As a result of these factors, UK households experienced their biggest fall in living standards in decades in 2022/23. Global inflation crisis causes rapid surge in prices The UK's high inflation, and cost of living crisis in 2022 had its origins in the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the initial waves of the virus, global supply chains struggled to meet the renewed demand for goods and services. Food and energy prices, which were already high, increased further in 2022. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 brought an end to the era of cheap gas flowing to European markets from Russia. The war also disrupted global food markets, as both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of cereal crops. As a result of these factors, inflation surged across Europe and in other parts of the world, but typically declined in 2023, and approached more usual levels by 2024.

Over a *** year period from 2019 to 2021, the average annual spend per person on takeaway food from restaurants in the United Kingdom rose by ** percent. In 2019, the average spend per person was *** British pounds. Meanwhile, in 2021, the average spend per person rose to *** pounds.

In December 2020, an average of 4.22 billion British pounds (GBP) worth of goods were purchased in food stores across Great Britain per week. This represented a record amount spent on food purchases, but was also expected as Christmas season typically means increased food sales across retail stores. As of June 2025, average weekly sales stood at around 3.37 billion British pounds. For data concerning the percentage change in the value of sales in food stores, please see the following.
A shopping rhythm The overall structure of yearly spending remained the same during the period in consideration. January, coinciding with the Veganuary campaign which encourages people to eat vegan as an alternative dietary choice in January, sees a sharp drop after a peak spending during the month of December. After January a few months see an increase leading to an early summer high. After a drop in early autumn November sees the prelude to increased Christmas spending. Grocery market in the United Kingdom The overall value of the UK grocery retail market was estimated to amount to 216.8 billion British pounds in 2022. Of this, about 166.3 billion sales were made in predominantly food stores in 2022. Supermarkets had the highest share of grocery sales in the UK.

The average weekly amount UK households spent on clothing amounted to **** British pounds in 2022. Among adults aged between 30 and 49, this was considerably higher at **** British pounds. Expenditure on clothing was not as high for older demographics.  Clothing: essential spending   In the fashion and apparel category, consumer spending concentrates on clothing garments, footwear, and accessories. Consumers spent **** billion British pounds on shoes and footwear in 2022. On a monthly basis, sales of clothing and footwear items at retail stores usually peak around the holiday season, a trend which has been consistently observed in previous years.   Selling clothes in a booming market, but how?   In the fashion segment, the revenue generated from e-commerce is resolutely climbing. This trend accelerated during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as physical shopping was not possible for many consumers. To compete, more and more high street retailers in the UK are turning to selling their products via hybrid selling strategies like multichannel retail.

In France, Uber Eats' mobile downloads outdid other food delivery operators by a significant margin in 2023. While the Uber Eats app was downloaded almost 2.7 million times, Deliveroo and Leclerc reached about 1.5 and 1.1 million downloads, respectively. E.Leclerc: omnichannel champion The online food delivery landscape in France is not only championed by third-party aggregators like Uber Eats and Deliveroo, but more established supermarket and hypermarket chains like E.Leclerc, Carrefour, and Auchan are also venturing in the digital sphere. In 2022, E.Leclerc was the leading drive-thru grocery retailer in France, surpassing competitors with a large margin. In the final quarter of 2023, E.Leclerc recorded nearly 18 million average unique monthly visitors to its website and mobile app. Online food delivery in France France boasts one of the highest online food delivery user penetration rates in the world, ranking ahead of major markets like Brazil, Italy, and Spain. In 2023, the online food delivery market in France generated more than 12 billion euros in revenues from both the grocery delivery and meal delivery segments.

In December 2024, the inflation rate for food in the European Union (EU) reached 2.4 percent compared to the same month the year prior. Starting in the beginning of 2022, food prices started to rise rapidly. In March 2023, the food inflation rate in the EU reached its peak at 19.19 percent. Since April 2023, the rate started to decrease. Food inflation in Europe One of the main drivers of the increase in consumer prices was the rapid rise in energy prices. In the energy sector, the harmonized index of consumer prices inflation of the EU, a concept to measure and compare inflation internationally, was at 41.1 percent in June 2022, whereas the other categories were all below 10 percent. In Germany, the year-on-year consumer price index development for food and beverages was at 12.33 percent in the year 2023, just a slight dip from the all-time high of 12.51 percent in 2022. By 2024, this had dropped to 1.92 percent. There are a number of ways in which European consumers are trying to save on food costs due to rising prices. The most popular way to deal with the rising food prices is to reduce at-home food waste. An average of about half of consumers in selected European countries stated that this is how they responded to the price increases. Other popular ways were to buy only the essentials or to purchase mostly store brands. Food inflation worldwide In 2022, Europe and Central Asia were the regions with the highest food inflation rates worldwide. The rate of food inflation in those regions was about 18 percent in 2022, which is more than twice as high as it was in the previous year. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the food inflation rate rose from 5.4 to 11.9 percent during the same period. When categorized by income classification, low-income countries have significantly higher food price inflation, as compared to lower-middle-, upper-middle-, and high-income countries. On average, low-income countries had a food price inflation rate of about 30 percent in 2023. The world average rate was at 6.5 percent. Zimbabwe was the country with the highest level of real food inflation worldwide. The southern African country experienced a food inflation of approximately 46 percent in 2024. This was more than two times as high as in any other country in the world.

The price of gas in the United Kingdom was *** British pence per therm in the fourth quarter of 2024. It is anticipated gas prices will increase to *** pence in the second quarter of 2025 before gradually falling to just under ** pence by the second quarter of 2027.
Surging energy costs and the cost of living crisis At the height of the UK's cost of living crisis in 2022, approximately ** percent of UK households were experiencing rising prices compared with the previous month. It was during 2022 that the UK's CPI inflation rate reached a peak of **** percent, in October of that year. Food and energy, in particular, were the main drivers of inflation during this period, with energy inflation reaching **** percent, and food prices increasing by **** percent at the height of the crisis. Although prices fell to more expected levels by 2024, an uptick in inflation is forecast for 2025, with prices rising by *** percent in the third quarter of the year. Global Inflation Crisis The UK was not alone in suffering rapid inflation during this time period, with several countries across the world experiencing an inflation crisis. The roots of the crisis began as the global economy gradually emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Blocked-up supply chains, struggled to recover as quickly as consumer demand, with food and energy prices also facing upward pressure. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to Europe gradually weening itself of cheap Russian energy exports, while for several months Ukraine struggled to export crucial food supplies to the rest of the World.

With over five million downloads, Tesco Groceries was by far the most popular food delivery app in the United Kingdom in 2024. The second place went to Just Eat, which recorded about 2.3 million downloads that year. Uber Eats followed in third, with over 2.3 million downloads. Online food delivery market in the UK In 2024, the United Kingdom was the third biggest online food delivery market in the world, after China and the United States. With an estimated 48 billion U.S. dollars in revenues, the online food delivery market in the UK doubled in size compared to before the pandemic, when food delivery revenues were estimated at 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Industry champions As of December 2023, the top three food delivery brands for consumers in the UK were Just Eat, Deliveroo, and UberEats. While the combined UK-Ireland was the most lucrative region for Deliveroo in terms of revenues, Just Eat Takeaway got its biggest share of revenue from North America. In 2023, Just Eat Takeaway generated 1.3 billion euros in the UK and Ireland.