More Australians are reaching for the booze than ever before, with shops returning record alcohol sales since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Supermarkets, take-away shops, hardware stores and the like turned over a record $15.6billion in alcohol sales in 2020.
Sales were up 26.7 per cent or $3.3billion on 2019 levels, with locals locked out of pubs and bars thanks to restrictions which plagued most of 2020.
The year-on-year increase was almost 17 times the year before, when alcohol sales grew by $195million.
In December alone alcohol retail stores turned over almost $2billion, making it the highest earning month in Australian history (pictured, women enjoying drinks in Sydney’s Coogee)
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Alcohol sales spiked in all months impacted by the pandemic, but May saw the biggest increase with turnover almost one and half times 2019 levels.
In December alone alcohol retail stores turned over almost $2billion, making it the highest earning month in Australian history.
Some 80 per cent of alcohol sold in Australia was already takeaway and delivery before the pandemic.
Supermarkets, take-away shops, hardware stores and the like turned over a record $15.6billion in alcohol sales in 2020 (pictured, a BWS in Adelaide when it went into lockdown)
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