Hair dye and dishwasher tablets: Our pandemic shopping basket staples

How much has the pandemic changed our purchasing habits? Like possibly nothing else before is the quick answer.

Last year’s Checkout Top 100 lists, which covered just the early weeks of the Covid-19 crisis, saw the hard surface cleaners category leap 13 places to 54th as we collectively tried to scrub away an airborne virus. This year’s rundown of the biggest-selling brands and categories in the Irish grocery market, compiled in partnership with NielsenIQ, confirms that over the 12 months to April 25th, 2021, we did indeed become the home-baking, home hair-dyeing, dishwasher-dependent nation of lockdown cliche.

Previously unexciting categories of product racked up sales like never before. Liquid soap, which climbed 10 places in the previous year’s ranking, jumped another nine spots to 79th in this year’s category list. Health/functional drinks rose by a “phenomenal” 27 places to 60th as we frantically did anything we thought might boost our immune systems. And with hairdressers closed for roughly half the sales period covered, hair dye jumped 25 places to 83rd place, re-entering the top 100 categories after a seven-year gap.

There’s more. Powdered baking products climbed 10 places to 89th, a performance that might be difficult to replicate next year if the anecdotal evidence of baking fatigue proves true. Working from home also meant running out of clean coffee mugs faster than usual, keeping the whirr of the dishwasher in regular action: dishwasher products duly rose 10 spots in the category list to 58th.

Coca-Cola is named Ireland’s biggest-selling brand for 17th year in a row

---

Australia-China tensions music to Denis O’Brien’s ears

---

Land value sharing measure doesn’t go as far as Kenny report recommended

---

KBC’s sale of bad loans to kick-start wider wave of disposals

---

Treats and variety

The Checkout Top 100 Brands list, meanwhile, was “treat” central, with crisps and chocolate finding buyers more willing than ever to fling their brands in their baskets and confectionery names going big on in-store marketing rewarded with sales. It was, to put it bluntly, a good year for Mr Tayto: having risen three places to third in the 2020 rankings, Tayto extended its gains in 2021 and is now the second biggest-selling brand behind Coca-Cola.

Elsewhere, there were signs that consumers were desperate for some variety to enliven the sameyness of their locked-down lives, with several categories seeing a change in their top-performing brand.

But there’s something we’re forgetting. Oh yes, the drink. Checkout’s top 50 alcohol brands list saw six new entries, among them was wine brand Santa Helena, Heineken’s premium beer Birra Moretti and Graham Norton’s Own. These alcoholic delights all have one thing in common: they are best consumed after applying home hair dye, not before.