STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- All low-contact services measured continue to be used more frequently
- Pickup services see highest increases in use
- A majority of more frequent users will continue using these services
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As social distancing guidelines persist in the U.S., growing numbers of consumers are increasingly turning to virtual, delivery and pickup options for essential goods and services. Gallup began tracking six of these measures on its probability-based web panel in late March, and the latest April 13-19 update finds Americans reporting more frequent use of each.
Among these services, Americans are most likely to report increased use of pickup services now than before the COVID-19 situation. Thirty-two percent of Americans say they are ordering takeout from a restaurant more often than they used to, and 28% say the same about curbside pickup from retail stores. Over the last few weeks, reports of greater reliance on curbside pickup have grown the most — 12 percentage points from the initial reading on March 29.
All Low-Contact Services May Enjoy Permanent Gains
Americans’ expectations of whether their increased use of each of these services will continue after […]
Curbside delivery/ pick-up service well began for the COVID infection. However, it was greatly accelerated the use. It will continue. The plus for consumers is that you order what you want and not as likely to add items that you see in the aisles. That may be a downside for the stores that often benefit from impulse buying – hence all the free demos inside of stores.
You got it right, John A., stores move things around in the aisles so that people see different items to entice them to buy products they never would have seen if they ordered specific items online. Myself personally would prefer to go to the store and purchase items myself because I need to know whether or not items are not genetically altered or hopefully just organic and I have to look at the carbohydrate/sugar levels because my wife is diabetic and I have to check the Cholesterol levels because of my wife’s heart problems which requires her to have as low as possible levels of that, too. Shopping is not easy for us but cannot be avoided because of our special needs. I am proud to have kept my life alive after she had a heart attack many years ago and a stroke last year and gets low blood sugar levels from time to time despite our efforts. I love her and she loves me and that is what keeps us caring about each other to protect each other’s health. Of course that is mostly my job because she is legally blind and I do all of the shopping and grow all of our home-grown organic food using only the best compost I can find. I also have to keep our old cars on the road by doing my own mechanical work because we cannot afford a mechanic’s prices, and I have to paint the house myself for the same reason. People who are rich do not understand how much effort a poor person goes through and how intelligent they must become just to survive in this capitalist oligarchy we live in, just to SURVIVE.
‘Impulse buying and rampant consumerism, esp at Xmas when so much ends up in the trash need to change. I’m seeing more garage sales, community sales, local market sales, etc in the future. Packaging, esp plastic is a nightmare of pollution. I believe one of the biggest challenges we face in the US is the outcome of the November elections. It feels like we’re being initiated in a powerful way into what’s coming, what we need to address and how we can begin to heal the divisions in our society. Emotionally involve citizens in coming up with creative life-affirming ideas and solutions. The refugees have a treasure trove of stories we need to hear. What it feels like to be on the run. Stories about when conflict arrives at your front door. When you may never see your homeplace again? When the kind of work you did is not available to you anymore. America has never been invaded in that sense.. but corona and climate crisis will and is changing everything.