Restaurants and bars need a new 'Eat Out to Help Out'

Did every supermarket “win” Christmas, asks a sceptical colleague.

Well, pretty much, yes. Supermarkets always do well over the festive period and which ones did slightly better than others is something for the grocer CEOs and the City analysts who keep score to fight over.

For the rest of us, what the figures show is that our grocery sector remains fiercely competitive and we are all the beneficiaries of that.

Forget that stuff about supermarkets ripping us off on this little item or that one, overall, it is a happy picture of capitalism at work. Even the staff get paid half decently these days as demand for their services is strong.

The wider issue for the economy must be that all that money being spent at supermarkets plainly isn’t being spent somewhere else.

Tesco and the rest have made their premium food offers so good that they are a decent, cheaper alternative to a night out.

So if you want a Christmas loser, the likely answer is the hospitality sector. Pubs and clubs will have had the odd good day as a public which still remembers the misery of a lockdown Christmas delighted in a treat at a nice restaurant.

The restaurants can be forgiven for thinking that the rising sales at the grocers are pounds directly out of their own pockets, however, which doesn’t bode well for the wider economy.

Pubs and restaurants are a vital part of how Britain looks and feels. High streets full of nothing but supermarkets and roads full solely of grocer delivery vans is not what we want. Indeed, it would be depressing.

Tesco chief Ken Murphy was cautiously optimistic today about how consumers are feeling. Inflation is falling and as long as employment stays high, higher wages ought to tempt us all to spend money on things other than supermarket food.

What can the Government do to help? The obvious thing would be a cut on VAT in bars and restaurants. An eat-out-to-help-out mark II, if you like. Why not?