The Covid consumer trends that shifted spending habits

IT ALMOST seems a parallel universe now, but this time three years ago the British public were rapidly having to get used to the most dramatic change in lifestyles since the Second World War.

- Rhiannon Curry

It was a time of toilet roll stampedes, Joe Wicks fitness videos, and Zoom weddings and it stretched out for many months. Indeed it was two years before the last of the Covid restrictions were lifted.

But with the worst of the pandemic now thankfully behind us, which consumer trends from those unsettling early months have survived?

When activities outside the home were limited to essentials such as medical appointments, food shopping and exercise, many took to cycling for the first time; sales of bikes and associated clothing and accessories soared.

But a report this week from the Bicycle Association suggested that this boom might have played itself out.

Pedal bike sales fell 22% to 1.88 million units last year — down more than a quarter on pre-Covid levels and the lowest in two decades, the report found.

And sales of children’s bikes slumped even faster, falling by 28% compared with 2019, to 700,000, although demand for electric bikes has remained more stable in the past three years.