Hectic lifestyles spell end of weekly supermarket shop

The single weekly shop may soon be a thing of the past as hectic lifestyles encourage consumers to use convenience stores for "top-up" shopping.

Research from Datamonitor, a market analyst, forecasts that, by 2006, European shoppers will make more than 20 billion trips a year to local shops, and convenience shopping will account for 13.3 per cent of spending on food and drink.

Three main factors have contributed to the less established domestic routine: a rise in the number of single people, a growth of after-work and weekend activities, and an increase in time spent travelling.

The researchers said that consumers made less accurate assessments of their weekly shopping needs because their diaries were constantly changing. A shopper might buy groceries at the weekend but then end up making dates to go out and throwing the food away.

Petrol stations are likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the change.

Piers Berezai, the author of the report, said: "Retailers will need to account for the growth in top-up shopping and offer more convenience goods, and not just position themselves as small-scale local supermarkets." To do well, stores would have to overhaul their product lines to attract a wider range of consumers, he said.

The value of the European "on-the-move" food and drinks market is forecast to rise from €68.8bn (£44bn) in 2001 to €81.2bn in 2006.