Food sales in each and every country were at their peak before and during Covid 19 period. As it is the most wanted basic need of human beings. So, the historical growth of sales was seen in the supermarkets of the UK. But with the decreasing amount of patients suffering from Coronavirus, the customers of supermarkets switched to dine out. Now they hardly cook food at home or enjoy meals at home. They find it pleasant to roam outside after a long-term lockdown. You must be wondering that these are all very common facts of the whole wide world. Why is this blogger giving so much importance in this matter? So, here I have tried to include some statistical data to make it more clear to you.
Retail sales of foods at supermarkets fell by 1.4% between the months of April and May. Because people chose to visit the reopened restaurants and bars over buying goods from the super shop. Surprisingly, the sales of non-food shops are rising by leaps and bounds. 2.3% is the risen amount in sales of non-food shops. The Office for National Statistics found that buyers are getting ready to enjoy summer and preparing the outdoor garden furniture after the relaxation of Covid restrictions. ONS predicts that people are busy preparing for social gatherings so they are not really into buying foodstuffs.
In contrast, online sales dropped as customers can buy their products from physical shops. As we all know, we cannot rely on online sites for certain types of items. We are bound to check it in person for our own satisfaction. Before the pandemic started, online sales were 60% higher than this time.
You will not be able to believe that the volume of food sales has fallen by 5.7% in April and May because of the increasing demand for outdoor furniture. Tesco, the British retail company which sells groceries and general merchandise, figured out that their sales were up by 8.1% during the very first lockdown. Now this percentage has fallen to only 0.5%.
In the same period last year, sales of clothing and department stores respectively rose by 28.9% and 12.6%. But now this sector is also facing a drastic fall in sales. Even the debit and credit card payments of 7 days to 10th of June were 5% lower. It is threatening because this rate was only a 1.5% decline even than the month of February 2020.
We people got a chance to be free from our home cage after a long time. And this is why we are doing more socializing and less shopping and giving importance to indoor hospitality. But most of us do not know the consequences of our activities. So, I can predict that drastic but not welcoming and pleasant incidents are yet to be faced by the world economy.
Sayma Akter Santa
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE
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