Taylor Swift and Foo Fighters assist increase card spending by 4% in July
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ales of Taylor Swift and Foo Fighters live performance tickets helped to spice up card spending by 4% year-on-year in July regardless of shoppers’ ongoing battle with the price of residing.
Live leisure, vacation bookings and summer season socialising motivated shoppers to half with their money, though cautious discretionary spending noticed the general progress determine fall from June’s 5.4%, Barclays mentioned.
Spending on non-essential gadgets was up 5.6% on a 12 months in the past, with bars, pubs and golf equipment having fun with 7.6% progress.
The leisure sector noticed a major 15.8% increase, with surges recorded on sale dates for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Foo Fighters’ upcoming concert events.
One in 10 shoppers (11%) mentioned they had been chopping again on different bills to afford tickets to concert events and flicks, whereas 10% mentioned they handled themselves to a live performance or movie ticket in July although they might probably not afford it.
Spending in supermarkets slowed significantly to five.2% from 9.8% a month earlier as the speed of meals value inflation continued to gradual after peaking in March.
However, concern round rising meals costs stays excessive at 91%, main 70% of buyers to search for methods to scale back the price of their weekly store – the best proportion to this point this 12 months.
Of these, 13% reported having to take away gadgets on the checkout to keep away from going over finances, 35% shopping for in bulk and 41% buying at a number of supermarkets to hunt out offers.
Meanwhile, 73% of shoppers reported noticing examples of “shrinkflation”, up from 70% in June, and 22% noticing that a number of the alcoholic drinks they purchase equivalent to beers, spirits and tinned cocktails have change into weaker or comprise much less alcohol whereas costing the identical quantity.
This coincides with adjustments to alcohol responsibility launched on August 1, which now taxes drinks on their energy.
Takeaways and digital content material and subscriptions rose 9.2% and 9.9% respectively, with the expansion in streaming providers probably linked to platforms cracking down on account sharing.
Travel spending additionally continued to carry out nicely, with journey brokers and airways seeing gross sales will increase of seven.8% and 39.1% respectively.
Esme Harwood, director at Barclays, mentioned: “While July’s weather was a washout for clothing retailers, it was a ray of sunshine for takeaways and streaming services, which performed better than expected.
“Entertainment also enjoyed a huge boost, largely thanks to pre-sales for Taylor Swift’s and Foo Fighters’ upcoming stadium tours.
“With value for money still a major concern at the supermarket, eagle-eyed consumers are also spotting signs of drinkflation – shrinkflation on alcoholic drinks.
“This could be due to manufacturers making changes to their products ahead of the recent changes to alcohol duty, which mean that drinks are now taxed according to strength rather than type.”