Waitrose shoppers turn to Spam for emergency supplies

On the up: sales of Spam soared by 40 per cent in the first week of January

11 April 2012

To some, Spam is a joke, most famously in a Monty Python sketch set in a café which served little else.

But for many Brits it's a comfort food to have in stock in case of hardship.

Waitrose, the upmarket supermarket chain more usually associated with organic vegetables, said sales of the ham and pork product rose 40 per cent last week.

Corned beef sales were also up, by 70 per cent, as shoppers filled larders with goods that would see them through prolonged bad weather and rumoured food shortages.

Overall sales for the week to 9 January jumped 22 per cent to £92.5 million.

Waitrose's parent company, John Lewis, did not do so well in the snow. Sales at the department store fell 1.4 per cent on the same period a year ago to £53.8 million.

"Footfall was depressed in many shops through the middle of the week," said Andrew Murphy, director of operational development.