london britons made over 79 million extra grocery shopping trips in the four weeks to march 21 yearonyear as they stocked their pandemic pantries driving a 205 jump in supermarket sales industry data published on tuesday showedmarket researcher nielsen said british consumers spent an additional 19 billion pounds 24 billion on groceriesthe data showed that in the week ending march 21 two days before prime minister boris johnson announced the full uk lockdown to try to contain the coronavirus spread sales rose 43 compared to the same period last yearnielsen found that in the fourweek period shoppers typically added just one extra item to their basket during each shopping trip with the average shopping basket increasing from ten items to eleven items and average basket spend rising from 15 pounds 186 to 16 pounds advt with households making almost three extra shopping trips in the last four weeks this small change in individual shopping behaviour has led to a seismic shift in overall shopping patterns said mike watkins nielsens uk head of retailer and business insightas well as increased store visits consumers opted to shop online many for the first time however unlike stores there is a finite capacity for online grocery shopping due to warehouse capacity and available delivery slots and this will have limited the growth of online salesnielsen data showed that in the last week of february and the first week of march shoppers focused on stockpiling necessities such as medicines cleaning supplies pet care items and ambient groceries such as pasta and rice this continued through to the third week with a consistent rise in these pandemic pantry itemsin the week ending march 21 many shoppers had already filled their cupboards with the necessities so they began to fill their freezers too sales of frozen food during this week rose by 84 compared to the same period last yearthis was also the week in which the government announced the closure of pubs and restaurants resulting in a 67 surge in beer wine and spirits salesnielsen said all uk supermarkets experienced significant growth in sales over the four week period with market leader tescos sales up 201 and those at sainsburys asda and morrisons up 224 172 and 193 respectively online grocery sales increased 14 yearonyear reuters published on mar 31 2020 at 0438 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app grocery sales panic buying nielsen coronavirus in uk grocery uk supermarkets homenewsuk supermarket visits jump