Who shifted most to online grocery shopping?
What does the image show?
By October 2020, twice as many households with people who were shielding started home deliveries as those with no health risks (16% vs 8%). More households who were shielding or had other high health risks also increased their online grocery shopping more than those with no health risks. Overall 51% of households without any health risks had never shopped on line whereas this was 38% for those with people shielding.
Why is this important?
The pandemic has had an uneven impact on people because of the different health risks associated with making journeys. This data suggests that the switch online was a significant opportunity to avoid exposure risk but there remain 38% of people who were shielding and not accessing online groceries. Friends and family, neighbours and community services filled the gap for many.
Bar chart shows that people in high risk (14%) or shielding (16%) households took up online grocery shopping in during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, while 18% of high risk and 21% of shielding households increased their usage of the facility. Around 20% of both groups remained consistens users, while 38% of shielding households relied on other means to get their groceries.