Shoppers' weather wisdom boosts Asda

After the snow left shoppers without last-minute essentials in 2009, Asda said many customers opted to split their big shop over two trips this year.

Last Thursday, - 23 December - was the chain's busiest festive day with a record four million customers across its 384 UK supermarkets. However, the fortnight leading up to Christmas saw 11 stores record sales of more than 7 million, compared with the nine that passed the figure in 2009.

The company's stores at Boldon, Tyne & Wear and Havant, Hampshire, both took over 8m in the two weeks, while other leading stores included one of its three Edinburgh outlets.