Food purchasing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Italian household scanner data

This study analyses food and drink purchasing patterns of the Italian population after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. Based on governmental restrictions at national and regional level, we explore changes in consumption behaviour due to enacted restrictions. Several phenomena may have affected food and drink purchases: (i) closure of restaurants and bars, schools and workplaces necessary implies a shift towards home consumption of meals, hence a higher quantity of food and drink purchased for consumption at-home, due to substitution; (ii) fewer visits to stores because of stay at home restrictions and anticipation of potential food shortages may induce stockpiling and online shopping; (iii) the quality (as proxied by unit values) of purchased food may change because of fewer promotions and increased propensity to save money; (iv) increased time availability because of abridging commuting time and cancelling out-of-home leisure activities may cause a shift towards purchases of raw ingredients, and a decrease in purchases of ready meal and convenience foods; (v) increased psychological distress caused by imposed restrictions and negative news may increase emotional consumption of some food and drinks. In order to test for the relevance of these factors, we use household scanner data on food and drink purchases in Italy, covering food weekly purchases and soft-drinks daily purchases for a panel of nearly ten thousand households over the years 2019 and 2020.