If you changed your shopping habits during lockdown, have you reverted to normal?

[BecomeStronger]

During the first lockdown when queues were long and supplies low, I discovered a local butcher and a fruit and veg supplier who usually supply the restaurant trade but who started doing domestic deliveries when their wholesale trade dried up. They were a godsend.

I've continued with the butcher, excellent quality, very reasonable, but not the veg because they were very expensive.

However, determined never to be in that situation again, now that other businesses have started taking new customers, I have set up regular orders with:

-Wine merchant
-Fishmonger (another operating out of a local industrial unit that previously supplied the trade)
-Organic veg box
-Milkman
-Smol dw and laundry tablets

I'm having to keep an eye on cost because there's no doubt they can be more expensive but I hope never to be fully reliant on the supermarkets again.

Out of interest, relative to the supermarket, the milkman is very expensive, the butcher works out cheaper for better quality, fish is about the same but far better quality, the veg box is cheaper than organic in the supermarket but dearer than regular veg.

We've always had a local butcher and milkman, but since lockdown 1 I have been ordering fruit and veg from a wholesaler. It's not all organic or local as such (although some of it is), but it's a company that used to supply restaurants and of course their business collapsed overnight and they started doing domestic deliveries. It was around the time that nobody could get a supermarket delivery at all, and actually it has been great so we'll carry on doing that.

There's a fish supplier who comes to our village every other Friday with a van so we've used him and will continue to.

DH has started getting bread from an amazing bakery near his work and we won't go back to supermarket bread.

Finally, there were a lot of local makers of treats like cakes and brownies etc that must have been operating before, but they sprung up all over local Facebook pages and have all been amazing.

I can't see us going back to our original MO of ocado for everything. Will probably get a big order every 3 weeks or so instead.

So yes it's changed our habits and we're unlikely to change back!

I realise my first paragraph is basically the same as yours! Sorry

I use a local farm shop for fruit and veg who started deliveries in lockdown. They grow some stuff and buy some in. Also sell eggs and preserves. I actively avoid anything labelled organic though. The village butcher /baker is excellent, and supplies local restaurants, he delivered to us in lockdown but I don't shop there now as very expensive.
However as ECV I have access to priority slots with all the supermarkets so I use them.
There's no milk delivery here.

I’ve started shopping at a different supermarket as I managed to get slots with them and I now I refer it. I get all my meat from the Farm Shop now, plus gorgeous sweet treats. I have a milkman now and won’t stop that, plus I get eggs, cream and yoghurts from him as well.

Yes, we now have a local business that brings essentials once a week and although more expensive we will continue with them and make a cut back elsewhere.

We have always mainly had supermarket deliveries so not much change there, bulk items from amazon and switched to an online store for cleaning items which we will continue with. Haven’t been to an actual shop in months.

We will keep a good supply though for the foreseeable future until things are better.

Now shop locally for meat, fish, alcohol (local bottle shop, delivery from bars) and bread/baked goods. Supermarket for the rest.

Far more internet shopping than before.

Spent far more in John Lewis - I think because their website and service is so good.

I only get meat and eggs from the local butcher now and I've grown lots of my own veg this year, including lots of winter veg. I'm also very much ready for next year with seeds! What was our Brexit cupboard became the Corona cupboard, and I'm now maintaining a proper pantry with lots of supplies. I'm going to keep that up now; I feel much better knowing I have plenty of dry goods in. We are doing a fortnightly supermarket who and it will stay that way. The chest freezer also helps. We use limited dairy products so we really don't just need to pop to the shops anymore.

Only in the sense that I used to do 2, sometimes 3 medium sized shops a week at supermarket. I now do a big weekly supermarket shop and 1 top up at a convenience shop for milk and bread. I can’t remember why I was going shopping that often so I think it’s a permanent change. Same supermarket though.

Same as rudolph - was doing many shops each week, now one online order and 0/1 top ups. Saving loads, no idea what the hell I was buying!

We're sticking with our new delivery stuff. I don't care if its a bit more expensive, it's so much easier for me (I always did the weekly shop). We also now have a recipe box delivered, which we did for a bit when child was tiny. Partner was a chef, but I need to my share of the cooking, and he'll eat it if I use a recipe box! He always used to just cover it all in tabasco.

I used to do a weekly main shop and then a top up in the week mainly for milk (but would usually buy extras such as chocolate). I now buy double the milk on my main shop so only do one trip a week - no idea why this didn't occur to be before.

Also got a veg box, wanted one for ages and finally got round to it over the summer.

I've done more Christmas shopping online as don't fancy going to the shopping centre. No intention of going there for a while...

We’ve stuck to ours: we started shopping daily so as to get out of the house each day and going to individual grocers, butchers, markets and specialist shops when the supermarkets understocked in the early weeks. Found that we weren’t wasting as much food when we only buy what we need immediately, so whilst it works out a little more expensive we actually save money overall. The range and quality is invariably better - and also much nicer service from local businesses. And we do a lot more walking!

We've kept the milkman - but veg services was too expensive and not always great quality.

We've also changed supermarkets - Tesco kept putting limits on and as we shop once a month it was getting silly. Trips to local shops are also fewer than before and we've tried Morrsions and Asda box servcies with mixed results but might again.

Also order bread flour in bulk now 16kg bags and also bulk buy a few other items.

Our usual buchers was in a local market - they had to close down during covid and subsquently it's really hard and confusing to access market - so we've used them less.

I didn't change where we shopped. Aldi has been excellent throughout, to be honest. there was no need.

I have changed habits slightly, as I tend to try to restrict my food shops to one a week, whereas previously I wold get a top up later in the week. I also used to pick up the odd things (toiletries, cleaning things) somewhere else sometimes, but tend to just get them all in the one shop now.

No not back to normal here. Some are good changes. I used to walk to the supermarket every day just to get out of the house with the baby and would spend between £15 and £60 on absolute rubbish we didn’t need. Haven’t been in one in person since March. Just one online shop a week.

Some changes are rubbish though. We often went to farm markets and independent shops for ‘nicer’ things and to be more ethical and support local. Now all of our food is coming from a big chain supermarket. Which was never the case before. That saddens me a lot.

We used to be really haphazard with food shopping; I never really used to plan anything, and would visit an Express supermarket near my office in Central London 2 or 3 times a week.

During lockdown, I've WfH throughout, so changed to shopping once weekly in our big local superstore for staples, local butcher for meat, then fruit and veg from the local greengrocers.

I still go to the big superstore once a week, and the butcher, but have changed greengrocer to one in the next town as the one I was visiting was really expensive. I love shopping more locally, and getting fresher, better quality food.

We always used the butcher for meat and eggs. We haven't got a milkman type service. Tbh, I didn't change my shopping habits during lockdown at all. Sometimes shelves were empty, but not for long.

I thought you were asking about things like clothes and was coming on to say I have been buying more! Practical things mainly, but I suppose I needed more things for outdoor exercise and comfortable things for the house. Much less need for things for the gym and going out. Also things for the house, like a new roof . Things I never noticed before in the house, I suddenly had to look at all day, so it motivated us to fix some things. So we have definitely been spending more this year than we normally would. No holidays or meals out though, so saved some money there!