Every day we pull some stats from a survey and say have a chat about the findings. Today: Our changing supermarket shopping habits.

Top five reasons why food shopping takes longer:

  1. Far more choice than 10 years ago
  2. Working out the special offers and BOGOF deals
  3. The supermarkets are physically bigger
  4. Calculating everything we put in our baskets as we go along
  5. Reading labels for nutritional content

The weekly shop now takes twice as long as it did 10 years ago – mums spend one hour and 26 minutes strolling up and down the aisles compared to the 38 minutes it took a decade ago.

During that time 49 per cent of shoppers will be writing lists, 20 per cent will be checking packaging for health content and 33 per cent will be making sure their chosen items are in a Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) offer or similar.

One in five (21 per cent) savvy shoppers work out how much they are spending using the calculator on their phone, while 71 per cent do mental arithmetic to calculate their spend as each item is added to the trolley.

51 per cent say they have to cater for the needs of different dietary requirements and tastes when doing the family shop, with fussy eaters taking up the most time. Those watching what they eat (19 per cent) and dairy-free eaters (20 per cent) are also blamed for slowing down the shopping.

Four in 10 shoppers check the size of packs and compare the prices of different pack sizes and refuse to buy items if they know they can get it cheaper elsewhere, while 28 per cent compare the prices of different brands.

16 per cent of households regularly browse online to see where they can get the best deals.

Mums still do the grocery shop in the majority of families, with mums with young children considered the biggest bargain hunters, followed by single parents and retirees.

Source: Study for Lending Stream.

What do you think? Are you surprised by any of the findings? Have your food shopping habits changed in the past 10 years? Post a comment below, or on Twitter using #nsstatchat