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.
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”.
