Shoppers Spent £2 Billion More Than Normal in Supermarkets in March

Britons spent nearly £2 billion more on supermarket shopping in March this year compared to last, according to new data by the retail analyst Nielsen.

As reported by the Guardian, customers also made almost 80 million more shopping trips for food, drink and groceries in the period between four-week period from 24 February to 21 March, with supermarket revenues rising by 20.5 percent.

A separate analyst, Kantar, found that March 2020 was the biggest month of grocery sales ever recorded, noting the same 20 percent increase in sales. Broken down, the numbers indicated that the average household spent an extra £63 on groceries, which Kantar said was the equivalent of five-days worth of extra goods.

Other notable findings included:

• An increase of nearly £200 million on alcohol sales since the closure of pubs, with 500 million more meals and snacks being consumed in homes since the closure of cafes and restaurants.
• Frozen food sales increased by 84 percent this week, year on year.
• While online shopping accounts for only seven percent of the total £200 billion grocery market in the U.K., in March this year, 20 percent of households placed an online order with a supermarket. That’s an addition 1.2 million orders, which has resulted in long delays in delivery slots for consumers. Many are unable to have food delivered from an online supermarket for weeks at this point.

While supermarkets are overwhelmed and shoppers are faced with less choice, some producers and suppliers are finding their way into new homes. And, don’t forget, now and always, there are always the independent food and wine shops, full of stock, too.

• Britons made 80m extra grocery shops in less than a month [The Guardian]