How are the lifestyle and eating habits of Italians changing in times of the coronavirus? The answer comes from a weekly tracking conducted since February by GFK, which is studying the effects that Covid 19 causes from week to week on the habits of the Italians and on their way of reacting, even psychologically, to the new lifestyle imposed by the decisions of the government and local authorities.
First of all it comes out that they invest more in purchases to work and study from home. From 2 to 8 March, for example, there was a peak in sales with increases in value of 63 per cent for laptops, 15 per cent for desk PCs (which had been declining for years) and 53,5 per cent for multifunction printers. According to GFK, there is now a tendency to set up a mini-office in the home equipped with up-to-date equipment.
Total household spending (increasing on average by 26 percent) is changing profoundly and is concentrated above all on the panel of essential goods such as bread, milk, flour, sugar and obviously everything that allows cleaning and disinfecting the home as well as the body. Very positive news the predisposition to buy books, considered a "necessary" good by a growing number of people.
And, as some chains have confirmed to us, sales of freezers have increased (an appliance that has been in decline for years) as the large amount of food must be stored in freezers for reasons of space and conservation, both fresh and cooked, in anticipation of a long stay of the family in the house. The time available allows you to prepare dishes to be frozen according to new and elaborate recipes, following more and more the blogs and videos of the most famous chefs on social networks and in particular on youtube.
As for the morale of Italians, concern for the future records a further increase (+11 percent) in pessimism both as regards the economy and the duration of the danger of contracting the coronavirus. Compared to the first months of the year, the behavior of households in purchases he became less compulsive, but concern about preparing adequate stocks of food and non-food items for the future is bound to rise further.
This is the sentiment – as defined by GFK – in all regions, so much so that in order to create consistent reserves, one often buys, too often and on all channels, with a constant growth of online purchases. And in the South this trend is even stronger as the dramatic effects of the Coronavirus unfortunately begin to spread.
