New data has revealed the cities that have spent the most (and least!) at the butchers this past year, and Oxford is ranked in second place with an average of £31.74 per transaction. Slough came top of the ranking at £38.85 per transaction.
The data comes from Paymentsense, which supplies card machines and e-commerce solutions to over 80,000 businesses in the UK and Ireland.
With most hospitality sectors shut and an increase in people swapping supermarkets for smaller independent suppliers, the company wanted to find out who was paying the most to their local butchers from March 2020 to March 2021.
Anonymised butcher spend data was collected and analysed from Paymentsense card machines across the UK. However, it is unclear how factors like frequency of purchase and bulk buying might have impacted the average spend.
Jon Knott, Head of Customer Insights at Paymentsense, said: “With hospitality sectors shut and an opportunity to support small businesses, the past year has been a great chance for independent retailers to offer goods that some places could not. Whether it’s local grocers, butchers or fishmongers, some Brits are opting to spend more on their food, but in local independent businesses.
Some people might stick to their local supermarkets for regular food shops, but for special occasions or treats, more people are opting to recreate restaurant-quality meals from the comfort of their homes.
This is usually either with cook-at-home restaurant offerings that provide the food or with online cook-along tutorials. Butchers will have seen the latter work to their advantage, and with less money spent eating out and more foodies will be spending more to fine dine without leaving the house.
There was a huge growth in Butchers taking out card machines for the first time (+123% year on year), as there was such a demand for services and needed to take card payments for the first time due to Covid.”
