Some 37% of products were sold on deal last month, topping the previous record of 36% set in the run-up to last Christmas. But, while value sales rose 4.1%, mainly due to inflation, volumes edged up by only 0.4%.
Mike Watkins, senior manager retailer services at Nielsen, said: "It will be worrying to those in the industry to see negligible volume growths coming out of a month where we have seen huge levels of FMCG promotions.
"It’s almost the case of running hard to stand still at present."
The amount sold on promotion has been steadily rising for a decade, according to Nielsen, but it has increased dramatically since the credit crunch and recession hit.
In September 2006, 26.5% of spend going through the tills in supermarkets was sold on some sort of offer. It rose to 29% by September 2008 and by last year, was at 34.5%.
Watkins added: "We saw unprecedented high levels of promotions in our stores last November, but this month’s figures top even that – eight weeks earlier than last year’s seasonal peak."
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