Spending on home deliveries of food and drink by “vulnerable” elderly shoppers almost doubled this month as overall grocery sales surged by more than £500 million.
The over-65s spent 94 per cent more with online supermarkets in April than they did in the same period last year, according to latest figures from researchers Kantar.
Online deliveries now account for a record 10.2 per cent of total grocery sales, up from 7.4 per cent last month.
The data published today also shows that people are shopping less often to reduce the number of times they have to leave home and visit a supermarket.
On average households shopped 14 times in the month, down from 17 trips. The amount spent averaged £26.02, the highest figure ever recorded, and up £7 from last year.
For supermarkets as a whole, sales were up 5.5 per cent — an extra £524 million of spending — but this is well down on the 20.6 per cent recorded during the stockpiling binge in March.
How Europe is adapting to the Coronavirus lockdown
1/11
Valerio Calderoni, owner of an italian tipical restaurant, and his wife Martina, pose for a picture during a test for a of possible plexiglass separator between tables of restaurant ”Il Ciak”, Trastevere district in Rome, Italy,
EPA
2/11
School-leaving examination year are sitting in their classroom in the Joseph Koenig Grammar School in preparation for the exams in Haltern am See, Germany
AP
3/11
While observing the self isolating distance requirements to contain the coronavirus, numerous visitors enjoy the sunshine in the Schoneberg city park in Berlin, Germany,
AP
4/11
Neighbours speak from their decorated balconies with red roses during Sant Jordi Day in El Prat del Llobregat, Spain
Getty Images
5/11
Residents watch the movie “Loving Vincent” projected on the wall of a neighbouring building from their front garden in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020 during the ongoing Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. – The German capital is one of the world’s most diverse cinema cities but with cinemas closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, cultural project “Window Flicks” are bringing film evenings to residents stuck at home by projecting movies on urban canvasses and knocking on doors offering popcorn
AFP via Getty Images
6/11
A woman wearing a protective mask passes Lipizzaner horses in a reopened park after the Austrian government loosened its lockdown restrictions during the coronavirus disease
Reuters
7/11
Alfons Lopez cooperates with the BonArea supermarket as a volunteer making home delivery to elderly people during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Masnou, north to Barcelona
Reuters
8/11
Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich during training despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease
Reuters
9/11
A hairdresser attends to a customer at the “1001 Haar” studio in central Copenhagen
AFP via Getty Images
10/11
Valerio Calderoni, owner of an italian tipical restaurant, and his wife Martina, pose for a picture during a test for a of possible plexiglass separator between tables of restaurant ”Il Ciak”, Trastevere district in Rome, Italy,
EPA
11/11
Max Bruehmann (l) and Heiko Gruner employees of German car producer Volkswagen Sachsen, work with face masks in the assembly of the ID.3 in the vehicle plant in Zwickau, Germany,
AP
1/11
Valerio Calderoni, owner of an italian tipical restaurant, and his wife Martina, pose for a picture during a test for a of possible plexiglass separator between tables of restaurant ”Il Ciak”, Trastevere district in Rome, Italy,
EPA
2/11
School-leaving examination year are sitting in their classroom in the Joseph Koenig Grammar School in preparation for the exams in Haltern am See, Germany
AP
3/11
While observing the self isolating distance requirements to contain the coronavirus, numerous visitors enjoy the sunshine in the Schoneberg city park in Berlin, Germany,
AP
4/11
Neighbours speak from their decorated balconies with red roses during Sant Jordi Day in El Prat del Llobregat, Spain
Getty Images
5/11
Residents watch the movie “Loving Vincent” projected on the wall of a neighbouring building from their front garden in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district on April 23, 2020 during the ongoing Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. – The German capital is one of the world’s most diverse cinema cities but with cinemas closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, cultural project “Window Flicks” are bringing film evenings to residents stuck at home by projecting movies on urban canvasses and knocking on doors offering popcorn
AFP via Getty Images
6/11
A woman wearing a protective mask passes Lipizzaner horses in a reopened park after the Austrian government loosened its lockdown restrictions during the coronavirus disease
Reuters
7/11
Alfons Lopez cooperates with the BonArea supermarket as a volunteer making home delivery to elderly people during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Masnou, north to Barcelona
Reuters
8/11
Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich during training despite most sport being cancelled around the world as the spread of coronavirus disease
Reuters
9/11
A hairdresser attends to a customer at the “1001 Haar” studio in central Copenhagen
AFP via Getty Images
10/11
Valerio Calderoni, owner of an italian tipical restaurant, and his wife Martina, pose for a picture during a test for a of possible plexiglass separator between tables of restaurant ”Il Ciak”, Trastevere district in Rome, Italy,
EPA
11/11
Max Bruehmann (l) and Heiko Gruner employees of German car producer Volkswagen Sachsen, work with face masks in the assembly of the ID.3 in the vehicle plant in Zwickau, Germany,
AP
Marks & Spencer has warned its trading is set to be affected for the whole of 2020.
The retailer said it will reveal how it will change ways of working “permanently” alongside next month’s results under a ramped-up overhaul, dubbed “never the same again”.
