Asda 'breaks records' during poor August weather

This month could well be the wettest August on record, the supermarket said, and consumers are eating soups and pies instead of traditional barbeque items.

As a result, Asda revealed, it has witnessed record-breaking sales of mince - 465 tonnes of the product were sold in the last week.

Moreover, the company noted that soup sales have jumped by a quarter, custard is up by 70% and gravy by 50%.

Allison Darling from Asda said that there has been a definitive trend towards people buying items normally associated with later in the year.

"The continual rainfall and below average temperatures have helped push up sales of popular winter favourites, many of which - such as gravy - have been part of Asda's great value price promotions to assist customers during the credit crunch," she commented.

She said that consumers only begin to get the confidence back to purchase barbeque items once the weather has been warm for a few days at least.

But Darling added that temperatures could be set to rise slightly over the Bank holiday weekend, so things could change.