TESCO HAS YET again retained its position as Ireland’s most popular supermarket, but SuperValu is close behind it. 

The latest Kantar Worldpanel supermarket shares show that Tesco accounted for 22.4% of the consumer spend over the course of the 12 weeks to 12 August, making it the country’s most popular supermarket. 

Tesco is the only one of the three major retailers to witness a decline in the average price paid per item, but this has been counteracted by shoppers spending more overall. 

On average, customers spent an extra €21 this period as they visited the grocer more regularly and bought more items each time. 

Meanwhile, SuperValu came in second place with a 22% share of the spend. 

Dunnes Stores came in third position with a 20.9% of the market share, down 0.1% on a similar period last year. 

Bargain supermarkets Lidl and Aldi took fourth and fifth place again this month with 11.9% and 11.5% of the consumer spend, respectively. 

Source: Kantar Worldpanel

All the top supermarkets showed a growth in people spending for the sixth period in a row. 

Kantar Worldpanel noted that supermarkets have all benefited from the spike in consumer spending during the recent months of warm weather. 

"It's been a summer of indulgence for customers. Alcohol is continuing to boom - overall sales of beer, wine and cider are up 10%," Douglas Faughnan, consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel said. 

"The August bank holiday provided the retailers with another opportunity to cash in, with targeted advertisements and promotional activity directing customers towards specific categories such as fresh meat, fruit and vegetables and branded treats," he said.