End of summer takes shine off food sales

Food sales have dropped at their sharpest monthly rate in three years as the end of the UK’s summer heatwave led shoppers to pare back on their spending last month. Sales volumes dropped by 0.8 per cent month-on-month in September, largely as a result of a 1.5 per cent fall in food shop sales, which posted their biggest decline since October 2015. The Office for National Statistics said that the fall had followed a “bumper summer” with the long run of good weather leading to a stark slowdown last month as the heatwave came to an end. Despite that, sales over the quarter were robust with volumes up by 1.2 per cent. “Retail sales continued to grow in the three months to September ... despite a…