Beauclair’s data, prepared for the Centre for Cities’ High Street Recovery Tracker, shows that city centre retail sales have now recovered to pre-covid lockdown levels. Average weekly sales are now four times the level of spend during the January-March lockdown.
Food and Drink is by far the most important retail sector driving that recovery, with weekly sales in that sector now exceeding total weekly sales for all sectors during the January-March lockdown.
The chart below shows city retail sales recovery from December 2020 to October 2021:
In the period after the reopening of non-essential retail in early April and before Freedom Day in July, Food & Drink accounted for 30% of all retail sales growth. However, in the period after Freedom Day, Food & Drink accounted for 58% of retail sales growth. Over the whole period from the reopening of non-essential retail to the end of October, Food & Drink accounted for 38% of the growth in city centre retail sales.
This growth is dramatically higher than other sectors, with Fashion accounting for 24% of sales growth, Travel & Accommodation accounting for 12% of the growth in sales, General Retail for 9% and Grocery and Health & Beauty for 5% each.
This data shows just how crucial the Food & Drink sector is in a time of profound change to the future of our city centres.
When examining this data, Beauclair analysed data from 146 million transactions with a total value of £2.25 billion from 62 city centres in Great Britain starting from 27th December 2020 through to 30th October 2021.
The Food and Drink sector includes cafes and coffee shops, confectionary, fast food chains, food delivery services, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, pubs, bars and restaurants.