Supermarkets calmer: Dutch people are now ‘hamsteren’ alcohol and drugs instead

There are economic winners and losers in the coronavirus. But if you invested in liquor stores, toy stores, or pharmacies you could be one of the winners. 

At least, according to the latest figures released from the ING Economic Bureau. These types of stores are experiencing an upturn in business, while leisure, fashion, and shoe chains are at risk of collapse.

Clothing and shoe stores had 74% less debit card payments last Tuesday than the same day last year. While the number of transactions for all brick-and-mortar stores fell by 28%, even for grocery stores, the value of each transaction increased.

Less grocery hamsteren

Supermarkets are continuing to profit, seeing a sales increase of more than 20% this year in the week from 15 to 22 March compared to the same week in 2019, market research firm IRI reports. That’s an extra 940 million in turnover — we wouldn’t mind having that hit our bank account right now.

But it appears that the worst of the wild-west supermarket days could be behind us, with IRI predicting that the worst food hoarding could be over, as sales begin to level out. There’s only so much toilet paper than can be stored in a tiny Dutch apartment after all.

Battling at the supermarket for the last bag of sugar could be a thing of the past. In fact, the number of customers at Albert Heijn To-Go’s and Jumbo City’s dropped by more than 40%.

Meanwhile, liquor stores have increased their sales by more than 13% compared to 2019, while drugstores also saw a big increase. Toy stores have also seen an unlikely rise in sales. With more kids at home, toy stores are more than happy to push educational books or new games to keep the little ones entertained.

Have your local supermarkets calmed down since the initial hamsteren? Tell us in the comments below!

Feature Image: DutchReview/Canva

Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺
Samantha Dixon 🇦🇺https://gallivantations.com
Sam has over six years experience writing about life in the Netherlands and leads the content team at DutchReview. She originally came to the Netherlands to study in 2016 and now holds a BA (Hons.) in Arts, a BA (Hons) in Journalism, and (almost) a Masters in Teaching. She loves to write about settling into life in the Netherlands, her city of Utrecht, learning Dutch, and jobs in the Netherlands — and she still can’t jump on the back of a moving bike (she's learning!).

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