Grocery shopping has drastically increased in less than a month


Fears of the current pandemic has resulted in a drastic change in customer behaviour. According to statistics, British consumers made nearly 80m extra grocery shopping trips in March as they started panic buying. This is almost £2bn more on food and household expenditures than in 2019.

The market analyst Nielsen has released a report demonstrating that the income of supermarkets in the UK has increased by over 20% during the key four-week period from 24 February to 21 March. There was a significant leap of 43% in the week ending 21 March. This was before supermarkets and other stores introduced security measures such as the restricting the number of shoppers in the outlet to ensure physical distancing.

When consumers started panic buying, each buyer made three additional trips to the stores. This equals to 79m more visits and an extra £1.9bn on groceries than during the same period last year. Speaking about this situation, Mike Watkins, UK head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen advanced that, “With households making almost three extra shopping trips in the last four weeks, this small change in individual shopping behaviour has led to a seismic shift in overall shopping patterns”. The findings of Nielsen are supported by data from other rival firms which also demonstrates a rise.


There was an increase in grocery shopping trips in March

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