SHOPPING baskets are not what they used to be. You generally have to queue for one nowadays and then lather it in disinfectant.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on consumer habits has been reflected in the basket of goods and services used to calculate inflation by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The announcement last week revealed that one of the new items on our shopping list is hand sanitiser, which is good since this time last year you couldn’t get it for love nor money. In its absence, I found myself on smash-and-grab missions to our local corner shop kitted out in leather gloves. I felt like a burglar.
Lockdown has also seen our sartorial inclinations change. Out are suits and power dressing (admittedly, for some of us they were never in), with a surge in sales of leisure wear such as tracksuit bottoms and sweatshirts.
For some of us, it wasn’t much of a leap to embrace this new casual approach to work wear.
Back when we plied our trade in a real rather than virtual office, I used to marvel at the excitement generated by a dress-down day among staff in the sensible departments of our organisation, the folk who wore proper clothes on a nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday daily basis.
If I had been presented with a dress-down day, I fear I would have had to turn up for work in my jammies.
So it has not been difficult for me to adopt the leisure wear look, being, as I am, still in mourning for the passing of the shell suit.
But the change in our consumer habits is not all about slobbery and the fear of catching Covid as we hole up and steep ourselves in sanitiser.
The other side of the leisure coin has also been grasped, with home exercise equipment added to the ONS basket.
Sam Beckett, ONS head of economic statistics, said: “The pandemic has impacted on our behaviour as consumers, and this has been reflected in the 2021 inflation basket of goods. Lockdown living has seen demand for home exercise equipment rise, while spending more time within our own four walls has also encouraged us to invest in smart technologies.
“A more casual approach to clothing, as more of us work from home, has seen the addition of loungewear into the consumer basket.”
The ONS said 17 items had been added to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) this year, with 10 removed and 729 unchanged.
The abandonment of offices has also seen the demise of Axminster and Wilton-type carpets, which evidence suggests are mainly used in commercial premises.
The humble canteen sandwich has also bitten the dust, although some might suggest it curled up and died a long time ago.
Additions to the list are new types of “smart” or WiFi enabled light, apparently thanks to the home improvement trend seen over the past year of lockdowns.
There we have it – a year of lockdown is the answer of the age-old question of how you change a light bulb.
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