Over-65s rush back to stores
OLDER people are leading a surge shoppers returning to physical stores.
The last four weeks have been the busiest for supermarkets in more than a year, with the number of shopping trips up four per cent compared with March.
Customers over 65 accounted for more than half of the increased footfall as many of them have been vaccinated, market research group Kantar said.
Additionally, spending in stores has increased by 6.5 per cent.
Kantar says that with the jab rollout and Covid restrictions easing the boom in online grocery shopping is starting to lose its momentum.
Internet orders accounted for 13.9 per cent of the total market in April, compared with a peak of 15.4 per cent in February.
While online sales grew 46 per cent, that is half the speed of growth at the height of the pandemic.
Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “There is a growing sense that the worst of the pandemic is behind us and people are becoming more comfortable with venturing out to the supermarket.”
He added that while stores’ overall alcohol sales grew by just one per cent over the last four weeks, sales of sparkling wine increased by 48 per cent, which Mr McKevitt said puts down to the easing of lockdown.
He said: “This suggests that many raised a toast with friends and family in the garden or the park.”
According to Kantar’s data, Tesco increased its market share over the 12 weeks to April 2021 by 0.2 points to 27 per cent, while Asda saw its share grow 0.4 points to 14.8 per cent. The Co-op’s fell by half a percentage point to 6.2 per cent.
Elsewhere, property group Shaftesbury said that footfall in London’s West End has risen to 86 per cent of its peak last December. It expects it to continue to climb as office workers begin to return to the area and when indoor hospitality resumes in mid-May.