Heatwave hits the high street

This week's heatwave has left bargain hunters too hot to shop.

In the three days to Tuesday, shopper traffic researcher SPSL reported that visitors to clothing stores were down by an average of 20 per cent.

However, shoppers have been stocking up on summer grub. Asda sold 466,000 units of ice cream last Sunday, compared with 200,000 on the same day the previous week. Asda expected sales of iceberg lettuces to almost double to more than 900,000 this week.

Week-on-week iceberg lettuce sales at Safeway rose 700 per cent, while burgers were up 800 per cent. Meanwhile, Dixons and Currys shifted 30,000 fans in three days.