From traditional Christmas hams, puddings and pavlovas to fresh Aussie seafood, Coles reveals who has the biggest appetite for its popular festive food this Christmas.
Queenslanders consume more Christmas hams from Coles than customers from any other state, almost triple that of Victorians per capita and double New South Wales customers per capita. The Sunshine State also tops the list for consuming the most prawns and beers from Coles but comes in third to NSW and Victoria for sweet treats like puddings, pavs and fruit mince pies.
Customers from NSW consume the most volume of puddings, pavlovas and fruit mince pies overall – almost one million more packets than Tasmania.
However, on a per capita basis, customers in South Australia and Tasmania eat more of the popular desserts than customers in any other state, eating their way through twice as many serves of pav, pudding and pie as NSW customers do at Christmas time.
NSW shoppers snap up the most WA Rock Lobsters, more than three times the volume of lobsters than their home state of Western Australia. The state tops the charts for sparkling and champagne consumption.
NSW also leads the list for the most Christmas crackers and wrapping paper purchased at Coles. Shoppers from NSW also enjoy cherries and mangoes atop their pavlova the most – eating the equivalent of 12 semi‑trailers of cherries at Christmas time, which is five times more than SA, followed by Queensland and Victoria.
While data shows that per capita, Aussies love their cherries almost equally across each state, Queenslanders consume almost twice as many mangos as Tasmanians and West Australians per capita.
Coles Chief Executive of Commercial and Express Greg Davis says: “While we may be divided in our food preferences depending on where we live, the one thing we’re all united over is our desire to be together this Christmas, with our recent survey showing that 60% of Aussies want to be together, and food is at the centre of the celebration.
“At Coles, we know the importance food has in bringing us all together to create an extraordinary experience. So this Christmas we’ve made the planning and preparation easy with over 150 new and improved products for a complete Christmas feast, from heat-and-eat entrées, locally-sourced centrepieces like our gold award-winning Crackling Smoked Ham on a rib rack, and ready-to-eat desserts such as our giant chocolate trifles and mousse logs that serve up to 12 people.
“We’re also focused on making this the most sustainable Christmas ever with our first-ever range of 100% recyclable, plastic-free Christmas crackers and greeting cards, and durable, wooden hanging decorations.
“More than half of our customers have told us that Christmas ham is their favourite Christmas product from Coles. We’re incredibly proud of our must-have 100% Aussie and sow stall free half‑leg hams, which have been winning awards for years including recently at the Perth, Tasmania and Sydney Royal shows.”
Coles’ survey of 7500 Australians also revealed that nearly 50% of Australians say they will do more of their Christmas food shopping online this year. To help support the increased demand, Coles is boosting online capacity and encouraging customers to use Coles online to have their groceries delivered to their home or direct to their car boot through contactless Click&Collect, available at 600 stores nationally.
Coles online has added thousands of Click&Collect timeslots for customers to conveniently collect their groceries this Christmas.