Grocery spending is up as young employees work from home
A person pushes a cart through a grocery store.
People in Washington state are spending 15% more on groceries than before the pandemic. One state economist says what's changed is probably lunch.
Anneliese Vance Sherman is the state economist for the Seattle region. She says many young tech workers used to pick up lunch at their jobs downtown.
Now, they are working from home and buying more groceries. "If you are used to eating out all of your lunches at work, that substitution is a very large one,” Vance Sherman said in an interview. “So I think there is a generational effect in play."
The rise in grocery spending became visible in spending data in April. In March, spending on groceries rose 66% as people loaded up on essentials for what was thought to be a few weeks of lockdown.
