Christmas 2017: Australians to spend $20B on grocery items, millions on decors

People walk in a shopping mall decorated with Christmas lights in Berlin, December 19, 2014. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch — People walk in a shopping mall decorated with Christmas lights in Berlin, December 19, 2014. Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch

Australians will spend billions on grocery items this year. More than 80,000 kg of turkeys, half a million pavlovas, about 1.7 million mangoes and six million fruit mince pies are expected to be sold at Woolworths stores.

Australians will spend $20 billion on grocery items for the Christmas, according to the Australian Retailers Association. Supermarket sales are tipped to be higher compared to last year by 3.27 percent. Foot traffic rises 7.5 percent week-on-week across grocery stores.

Since the holiday is generally a time for family gatherings, the Christmas table is expected to be filled with food of all kinds. Demand for roast chicken, prawns and cherries, among others, will possibly rise.

Woolworths expects a 20 percent rise in the demand for hot roast chickens. Over 900,000 punnets of cherries are tipped to be purchased this summer, with 30 percent to be sold at Christmas time.

Woolworths director of buying Steve Donohue said that the supermarket expects to sell more than 1.2 million kilos of Australian prawns, News.com.au reports. Among the most popular items from Woolies stores last Christmas were cherries, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, half leg ham, roach chicken, Coca-Cola cans and avocados.

Christmas rush looks inevitable and Woolworths is prepared for that. The supermarket has hired more than 14,000 additional team members, joining over 128,000 team members already across the country.

Coles is also ready for the demand as it is selling more pavlovas in the Christmas week. Other huge sellers are prawns, gingerbread and booze.

A spokesperson for the company said that Coles was making itself ready to offload over three million kilos of ham, one million puddings, 600,000kg of prawns and two million fruit mince pies. Aussie shoppers will be getting cheese and cream, too, with the Coles spokesperson adding that cheese sales would double and more than 600,000 L of cream would be sold. Seafood will also be on the table. The Sydney Fish Market anticipates selling 750 tonnes of total seafood.

For some Aussies, particularly those who have started buying gifts, it definitely is starting to cost a lot like Christmas. Comparison site Finder.com.au has said that gifts and travel will be Australians’ biggest expenses, with the average person spending $492 on presents.

As for Christmas decorations, Australians will spend millions on Christmas lights. According to Finder, more than one million households intended to go “all out” when it comes to Christmas decorations.