Trends - Easter 2018
2 January 2018
Trend Email - No.1 - Easter 2018
Despite Christmas literally just finishing, already we see Easter lines appearing in stores... Easter is the next 'big' event in the calendar, despite Mother's Day and Valentine's Day coming first, Easter is the 2nd to Christmas overall...
From store visits within the week, including yesterday (1st January 2018), Easter lines have arrived in to stores and are on display for customers too. It's never too early for a Creme Egg, after all.
Never too early for a Hot Cross bun either, 4pk in Sainsbury's for 60p, with Asda trading their 6pk at the same price with a 2 for £1 deal overlaid.
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Why not have a Creme Egg? 50p to you in Asda. Shippers sited here to drive early volumes as customers aim to move out of Christmas and New Year and in to thinking about other events.
January is not an easy sell though, customers are overloaded with Chocolate in any case. The focus also turns to health as January sale aisles fill up with cheap Fitbits and Joe Wicks books... Equally some of the ends used for deals also change, focusing on healthier alternatives..
However 50p is a good round price and likely to see pick up from customers.
Sainsbury's were equally out early with their Easter offerings, a 'egg hunt' shipper via Cadbury's seems a little excessive for the 1st of January however.
Sainsbury's Local had a wider range of Easter lines out, in the impulse run near the checkouts. Ideal for trade, as customers queueing will pick these up out of curiosity (IE why are they on sale now?)
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Visiting John Lewis was an interesting experience post Christmas, with my expectation of nearly all Christmas to be sold through wide of the mark....
There was boat loads around, even noted some Beauty based advent calendars which should have gone by mid December at the latest..... They should never still be around on the 31st December...
Whilst Christmas was everywhere, John Lewis also found space for an Easter display, and had a number of decorative lines out for Easter....
A wicker Easter bunny was noted too.....
However these lines were all reduced to clear, so were they last year's stock that had been rescued from the warehouse and put back on display?
They've surely not been out on sale since last Easter!?!?
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Whilst every retailer probably has Easter on display somewhere in their stores, M&S are the only ones to also display Valentine's Day ranges alongside their Easter collections.
They were the quickest out of the blocks last year also, and feature character based figures (Dinosaur, Trolls) alongside their mini Chocolate Egg lines too.
Valentine's lines are perhaps more understandable given it's c.6 weeks until that event.... However it's out of step with the market who are not in the mindset of Valentine's day just yet.....
But it is always interesting to see how retailers shift between the seasons, almost seamlessly in some cases.
Whilst it's early to think about Easter, novelty value alone will fuel sales in the early days, especially on Creme Eggs.
So, our first email is done. Many more observations to follow from the stores, identifying trends and showcasing the work that Grocery Insight carries out in the sector too.
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From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 2 January 2018. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.