Brits are spending £4.46 billion on drunk shopping purchases

Ciara Sheppard
·2-min read
Photo credit: Inthon Maitrisamphan / EyeEm - Getty Images
Photo credit: Inthon Maitrisamphan / EyeEm - Getty Images

From Harper's BAZAAR

We can all appreciate the feeling of getting a little ‘add to basket’ happy when we mix Internet shopping with alcohol.

And a dangerous cocktail it is, as a new study finds Brits are spending an estimated £4.46 billion while under the influence.

Finder’s survey into drunk shopping over half of people in the UK (55.9%), carried out spontaneous boozy purchase in 2019. This equates to £28.7 billion in shopping.

Photo credit: 10'000 Hours - Getty Images
Photo credit: 10'000 Hours - Getty Images

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most common purchase was food, with 50.2% of people hitting ‘pay now’ to satisfy their drunk cravings.

This was followed by clothes, where over one in four (28.48%) Brits – that’s 14.9 million of us – admitted to getting shopping basket happy after a few drinks, making it the second most popular purchase.

Gambling and holidays came in third place with 22.38% Brits admitting to spending in these categories, however the most money per person was spent on vay-cays, where we totted up an average £155.71 each on booking spontaneous getaways.

People were least inclined to make spend money on furniture while under the influence (just 15.56%), saving their sofa orders for sobriety, making it the least purchased item while drunk.

Photo credit: markhanna - Getty Images
Photo credit: markhanna - Getty Images

As for gender, the inclination to drunk spend was higher for men than women, with 58.36% and 53.44% doing it respectively.

Clothing was the only category where women spent the lion’s share, putting down £46.35 per year compared to men’s £38.83.

Now we'll maybe think twice before opting for that self-induced retail hangover.

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