Cream liqueurs more popular than nightclubs

Cream liqueurs and restaurant meals are ‘in’, organic is mainstream and nightclubs are ‘out’, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics.

The ‘national shopping basket’ no longer includes money paid for entry into nightclubs

In its annual ‘Shopping Basket’ which it uses to measure inflation the ONS reported that 15 new items have been added, 14 have been removed and 13 modified to better reflect UK shopping trends.

No alcoholic drinks have been removed from the list but surprisingly cream liqueurs have been added, as have coffee pods – and perhaps the two are linked?

The ONS explained cream liqueur’s inclusion: “This represents a sub-sector not covered in the basket and has been introduced to help interpretation of a class where there is a high degree of price volatility due to discounting.”

Eating out at restaurants, lemons, computer game downloads, microwave rice, large chocolate bars and ‘meat-based snacks’ (which is to say “buffet food” said the ONS) are all among the products Britons are now likely to spend their money on apparently.

Organic apples and carrots have been taken out of the basket but only, the ONS explained, because these are now so “mainstream” that there is less distinction between them and other non-organic ones.

The increasing popularity of downloaded games, films and music has seen rewritable DVDs and CD Roms (remember them?) removed from the basket as well as pub snacks and nightclub entry fees.

So many nightclubs have no closed and those remaining have largely scrapped entry fees which makes it difficult to track and collect average prices said the ONS.

Last year it was reported that the number of UK nightclubs had halved since 2005.

For the full report from the ONS click here.