Spending on dining and in restaurants was down by 12% in the full month when compared with the previous year's figures. However, spending had been trending ahead of
With a large section of the workforce working from home since
Spending online fell in December (42% of total spend) from the previous month (55% in November) as people availed of the opportunity to shop more in stores once they reopened at the start of December. Spending online and in store shows that consumers were clearly still keen on keeping active, with spending on sporting goods increasing by 36% in
Commenting on these debit card spending patterns,
Christmas is traditionally a time when many people give charitable donations. In the same way that so many aspects of our lives moved online during 2020, in December our records for online donations were comprehensively broken.
As the country re-opened at the beginning of December a lot of pent up consumer demand was unleashed, with the data showing that more consumers went back to the shops once their doors opened. And whilst our analysis reveals that overall restaurant spending fell by 12% year on year, the sector was actually on track to have a better month than in 2019 had it remained open for the entire month. Nonetheless, that sector has had an extremely challenging 2020 and 2021 - so far - looks set to continue in that vein.'
Up
Charity donations +84%
Sporting Goods +36%
Cards, Gifts, Novelty +23%
Clothing +22%
Toys, Hobbies +2%
Down
Restaurants -12%
Entertainment -3%
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