Spending habits undergo ‘revolution’

Expenditure in record shops and video stores has slumped by 71 and 49 per cent respectively over the past ten years as consumers moved to online streaming services – but card spend in supermarkets has almost doubled, a study has revealed.

The report said that consumer spending has undergone a “revolution” over the past decade, as it found that spending on debit and credit cards rose from £270 billion in 2005 to £566bn in 2014.

Richard Koch, head of policy at the UK Cards Association, said: “Today we think nothing of paying for a coffee and a sandwich with a contactless payment card or streaming films on a smartphone which is also enabled for mobile payments. This is so different to a decade ago when we carried more cash and shopped in high street stores.”