Sainsbury’s and Nectar reveal the top taste trends of 2022
UK retailer, Sainsbury’s and its loyalty scheme Nectar have released the taste trends that swept the nation during 2022 using data from 17.6 million Nectar customers.
As 2022 kicked off, more people took on dry January, with purchases on alcohol-free products up 20% year on year. Veganuary also proved popular, with vegan product purchases up by nearly 9% compared to 2021.
In March over 900,000 lemons and nearly 2 million boxes of eggs were purchased in the week leading up to Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Day wasn’t the only day customers had eggs at the top of their shopping lists. Easter saw 10.7 million chocolate eggs purchased in the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday as well as 3.5 million hot cross buns.
Celebrating the Jubilee
In June, the nation came together to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in marking her Platinum Jubilee and almost 95,000 customers bought a packet of scones on the first day of the Jubilee Weekend alone.
Wimbledon tennis saw customers buying 3.5 million portions of strawberries and 341,000 pots of cream. The England Women’s Football team finally brought it home and to celebrate customers bought over 900,000 bags of crisps and nuts, over 125,000 dips and nearly 1.5 million bottles and cans of beer on the day of the final.
As the school holidays started, Nectar kickstarted 'The Great Fruit & Veg Challenge', running for 7 weeks. The digital challenge was popular with 88 million portions of fruit purchased, up 59% compared to the 2021 challenge. Over 1 billion bananas were also bought, beating the number of portions purchased for apples and oranges combined.
Hot chocolate and pumpkins
Halloween’s popularity continued to grow with nearly 800,000 customers buying a pumpkin, up 6% compared to 2021. During the first week of November over 190,000 pots of hot chocolate and over 18,000 bags of marshmallows were bought.
As the year drew to a close, December saw families buying 3.5 million pots of gravy for the big day! Shoppers also picked up over 1 million packets of Yorkshire puddings to accompany their Christmas Day feast.
Alex Naisby, Director of Loyalty & CRM at Sainsbury's said: “Nectar’s Year in Review is always a moment I look forward to as not only is it exciting to discover my top purchases, it’s also fantastic to see the products our customers love and the celebrations and trends they enjoy.
“Last year we came together to celebrate so many moments as a nation, and as usual food and drink was at the heart of those milestone moments. We’re delighted to have helped our customers to indulge and celebrate, but also supporting them to make healthier choices. I can’t wait to see how customer shopping habits change throughout 2023."