The coronavirus lockdown has given many of us more time our hands, and now data has shown that alcohol sales have risen by a third in the UK during this period. The news was revealed by the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/searchdata?q=alcohol">Office for National Statistics</a> (ONS), which has been recording sales data since 1996. According to the ONS, during the lockdown, alcohol sales in volume terms have risen by 31.4 percent; meanwhile, the sales of clothes have dropped by 34 percent. Proof that a pandemic drastically changes people's priorities. Kelly Hogan Painter took a shopping trip in a Buzz Lightyear helmet during the pandemic:  [[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/mEDhrHGZ-dkXnENEs.mp4||mEDhrHGZ]] This increase in alcohol sales comes as the British government deemed off-licenses to be essential businesses. However, while off-licenses might now be essential businesses, the majority of alcohol in the UK is being purchased from supermarkets. Consumer analysts <a href="https://uk.kantar.com/consumer/">Kantar</a> revealed that in March alone, sales of alcoholic drinks increased by 22 percent, with the total sales of beer, wine, and spirits equating to £1.1 billion ($1.36 billion) in the four weeks leading up to March 22. But although sales of alcohol and food have not suffered as a result of the pandemic, every other industry has been hit hard, and experts now fear that the worst recession in centuries could be on the horizon. <img class="wp-image-12594439 size-full" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/04/6b8bb1ea-alcohol-1.jpg" alt="Alcoholic drinks. " width="760" height="604" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Pexels]] Jan Vlieghe, a member of the Bank of England's interest-rate setting committee, said in an interview with the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52408885?fbclid=IwAR3zOqs66THLNgE2AQ0C6vNPFlkbjhUU_-9MN8fm4rG-SH-cmReEZFcSuzw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> BBC</a> that "early indicators" are that the UK is already "experiencing an economic contraction that is faster and deeper than anything we have seen in the past century, or possibly several centuries." However, while there will be an inevitable effect from the pandemic, if businesses act responsibly now, things could return to a semi-normal state faster than they might otherwise do. Per the BBC, Lisa Hooker, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers consumer market leader, said: "We don't expect the pattern of post-lockdown spending to be exactly the same as before, with our latest survey indicating that consumers intend to reward more responsible retailers. "Particularly those who looked after their staff, and shop more on their local high streets and with smaller or independent retailers, giving some more hope to many of the hardest-hit operators."

Alcohol sales rise by nearly a third during coronavirus lockdown

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