Home deliveries of just about everything skyrocketed during UK lockdown

What would we all have done if the pandemic restrictions had happened 25 years ago, before we had the world at our stumbling fingers and thumbs?

Remember the days before you could order a bottle of wine and a takeaway curry and have them delivered almost immediately?

Many young people will not remember, of course, but even their grandparents have taken to online shopping and flashing the plastic like they were born to it, as several surveys reveal.

With pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs shut, 43% of people who made purchases online in the seven weeks from March 23 placed orders for booze, according to an analysis of UK shopping habits.

Nearly half of Britons (45%) have received more parcel deliveries since lockdown began, according to Royal Mail.

The postal service company has conducted research into the types of goods the public ordered in, and the products they intend to have delivered in future, shedding light on consumer behaviour during lockdown and beyond.

Clothing was the most popular category, with 64% of those polled having new additions to their wardrobe delivered, despite having nowhere to go.

This was followed by drinks deliveries, and then grocery orders, which 36% of respondents placed.

Last month Google revealed it had witnessed a “huge jump” in interest in local beer delivery services, with searches shooting up 500% during lockdown.

One in five people had plants or flowers delivered as gardening became an attractive occupation for many people at home, and the same proportion of shoppers ordered in paint for the house, according to a YouGov survey.

Eight in 10 people said they expected their digital spending or ordering to remain at the same level or increase after the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Online clothing, groceries and takeaway orders in particular are likely to remain high.

How would we have survived the pandemic before the internet?

And how will traditional bricks and mortar shops and malls survive when they rely on potential customers getting out of their comfy chair and physically dragging themselves along to their store, when it most likely doesn’t have your size in stock anyway?