The corona pandemic is turning many people’s lives upside down. This is clearly visible in their consumer behavior. PostFinance has evaluated the payment data of Mr and Ms Schweizer for the past two and a half years and has gained exciting insights: Savings are made on expenses for public transport and trips abroad, among other things. On the other hand, more money is spent on personal wellbeing, pets – and lotteries.
Purchases for the household and daily life are usually easy to predict. In December, for example, a lot of groceries are bought and in spring it is the turn of the garden tools. “During the lockdown weeks, this purchasing behavior changed completely,” says Daniel Mewes, PostFinance’s Chief Investment Officer. “On the one hand, certain purchases were no longer possible, on the other hand, hamster purchases meant that significantly more food was bought in certain weeks than before Christmas.”
In addition to these short-term fluctuations, sustainable changes in household consumption can also be observed. Since spring 2020, spending on communication has been twice as high as it was before the crisis. Spending on pets also increased significantly with the Corona crisis – and has been at a high level since then. «With the increased work in the home office, the need for variety and more exercise increased. Among other things, this has resulted in many households buying pets, ”explains Daniel Mewes. At the same time, spending on public transport has fallen significantly. After the significant slump in spring 2020, these have only partially recovered and have recently been on the decline again.
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