Supermarket’s customers buy in ‘record volumes’ just before Christmas to boost grocery sales

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A last-minute dash to secure Christmas shopping lifted sales at Sainsbury’s over the festive period, as the supermarket chain gave its staff a 5% pay rise.

The group said its customers were “shopping late and [buying] record volumes in the days ahead of Christmas”, helping to boost grocery sales by 3.8% in the six weeks to 4 January while sales at its Argos chain rose 1.1% in that period.