Life under the COVID-19 lockdown differed between the young and old, according to Countdown’s Onecard data.
Expectedly, millennials and Gen Zs customers swapped their usual takeaways and dinners out for home-cooked meals, but they also returned to the old days, loading their trolleys with pantry staples and fresh produce, leaving pre-made meals and snacks on the shelves.
Steve Mills, Countdown’s Head of Merchandise, says “in the era of Instagram foodie fan pages and recipe inspiration at the click of a finger, our younger customers have celebrated cooking over lockdown using mostly staples and some elbow grease”.
There was also a surge in healthy products being bought by under 35s, including avocados and smoothie-friendly soy-milks.
For those over 60, some took the government’s advice to stay home and shop online, with online orders skyrocketing from just nine per cent before lockdown to 25 per cent in Level 4.
Particular products were in hot demand during the lockdown, including a 93 per cent increase in demand for flour when compared with the same time period in 2019. Other products proven to be popular included baking powder, yeast, canned vegetables, shareable chips, long-life milk and fresh poultry.
Mills says “In our 1.5kg Countdown branded flour alone, we’ve provided more than 470 tonnes to households, which is enough flour to make almost 2 million cakes.”
Now that’s impressive – even if the flour was being stockpiled as opposed to being put to good use!
