Data from Barclaycard, which sees nearly half of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions, shows that spending on essential items grew 4.2% year-on-year, with a 13.9% rise in supermarket expenditure – although this was the smallest increase in the category since February 2020.
Spend on takeaways remained strong at 18.3% growth, as people continued to embrace dining in.
Spending in food and drink specialist stores, such as butchers and greengrocers, rose by 50.7% as shoppers looked to support local businesses, while that on non-essential items declined 1.7%, compared to the 0.6% growth seen the previous month.
“As we enter another period of lockdown in England and further restrictions across the UK, this stay-at-and home mentality is likely to persist, as is the popularity of takeaways and digital subscriptions – helped along by the colder weather and darker evenings.
“As the country prepares for a winter under potentially tighter restrictions, and we turn to online for our Christmas shopping, the resilience of bricks-and-mortar retailers will be tested as we wait to see what the rest of the year brings,” says Raheel Ahmed, head of consumer products at Barclaycard.
Confidence in the UK economy also remains low, with less than half as many over-55’s (15%) as 18-34-year-olds (34%) feeling confident, according to Barclaycard data.