The corona crisis has turned Austrian households upside down. Figures from the AMA now provide more precise information about this. The main findings: People have been cooking more since the crisis and go shopping much less frequently.
Changed cooking behavior: Why are people cooking more often since Corona?
Just as the corona pandemic affects our workplace, it also has an influence on our leisure time. Restaurants were closed for months. A large proportion of all Austrians were sent to work from home, and children were also at home around the clock. The situation has eased somewhat in the meantime, but it is still not quite the same as it was before. Due to the ongoing restrictions on public life and the compulsion to work from home, people are spending more time within their own four walls during Corona.
More time for cooking
Anyone who cooked very little before the crisis due to a lack of time can now swing the wooden spoon all the more often. Experts have long interpreted the trend towards home cooking during the pandemic as a coping strategy. Two-thirds of people are cooking with fresh ingredients, according to the AMA. According to the survey, eggs, fresh vegetables and butter are in demand as part of the new cooking trend. But durable goods are also experiencing an unprecedented boom. This applies in particular to pasta products such as noodles, which top the list of the most popular foods during Corona times. Many Austrians stocked up, especially in the first panic phase at the beginning of the pandemic. The cooking trend only started later, in the so-called adjustment phase. In the panic phase, it felt like it was about bare survival. The adjustment phase, on the other hand, motivated consumers to make life as pleasant as possible with the new situation. In this case: with fresh ingredients instead of long-life food.
Self-presentation with home-cooked food
The forced closure of the catering industry has led to dishes to cook at home being searched for on the internet more frequently than ever before. A look at social networks also confirms the new home cooking trend. Where photos of exciting vacations used to fill the timeline, during Corona it is home-cooked meals. Cooking is becoming a lifestyle trend and offers one of the few opportunities for self-presentation during the crisis.
Less and less to the supermarket
It is not just the ingredients purchased and the value of home-cooked food that are changing during the crisis. As the AMA has determined, Austrians are going shopping less and less often, but are buying more when they do.
Almost 60 percent of all respondents reported a decreasing shopping frequency.
Five percent of all study participants stated that they no longer go to the supermarket at all.
Three quarters of the study participants want to continue the changes even after the corona crisis.
The changes in shopping frequency occurred primarily as a result of infection prevention. Anyone who does not leave the house often and rarely moves in crowded supermarkets reduces their personal risk of infection. Against this background, food deliveries to one's own front door are also in greater demand than ever before. It is not just long-life products that can be ordered online these days. The same applies to fresh ingredients. The fact that delivery services such as the meal kit provider HelloFresh have reported an increase in sales during the crisis confirms the new trend.
