A last minute sales rush on food and drink before Christmas bucked a slow start to the month according to British Retail Consortium statistics. Strong last minute sales of food and drink in the three days before Christmas may have been influenced by the fact that it fell on a Tuesday, allowing extra shopping days. In the two days before Christmas customers shifted to buying quality lines. Beers, wines and spirits were particularly fast movers. The BRC/KPMG sales monitor covering the period from November 25 to December 29, says retail sales grew 6% like-for-like in December compared to 5.8% in November. BRC director general Bill Moyes said: "These strong figures are a good end to a year in which the retail sector has been seen as the one stable driver of growth." {{NEWS }}