Todd Muller announced National's first policy as leader to offer businesses a $10,000 cash payment for taking on more staff if they win the election. Video / Will Trafford
The spending habits of Kiwis during the depths of lockdown have been revealed, and unsurprisingly streaming services, supermarkets and fast food saw a significant boom.
Westpac has released data on the daily spending of its customers from February 27 up to May 13 as New Zealand transitioned from level 4,through to our current level 2 restrictions.
Spending on digital subscriptions and digital goods including media, books, movies and music increased massively in the lead-up to level 4 and stayed high into level 3.
But as soon as the country moved into level 2, those digital subscriptions dropped back down to less than pre-lockdown transaction figures.
Salons and barbers saw one of the highest booms after lockdown. SUPPLIED
Fast-food chains, which lost all their sales during level 4 while closed, rocketed back up to greater than pre-lockdown sales numbers as soon as they reopened in level 3.
"A benefit of this data is that we can see spending behaviour, which can help us cater our systems to customers' behaviour," Westpac Tech Area Lead Hamish King says.
Supermarkets saw a big initial spike as level 4 began but nose-dived as level 2 began and restaurants, bakeries and cafes reopened their doors fully.
Kiwis spent the Level 4 lockdown binge-ing on Netflix and pining after fast food. SUPPLIED
Instead of shopping at supermarkets, New Zealanders, since level 2, have been eating out - bringing daily transactions at eateries close to pre-lockdown numbers.
Hair salons saw one of the highest booms out of any industry when New Zealand left level 4 lockdown and entered level 2.
Supermarket transactions nose-dived when restaurants reopened. SUPPLIED
Barber and beauty shops saw daily transactions double that of figures prior to Covid-19 even being an issue when they reopened in level 2.
Despite stores reopening, shopping services online and at brick-and-mortar locations decreased once we moved into level 2.
Digital media and online subscriptions boomed in Level 4 of lockdown. SUPPLIED
Most New Zealanders stopped paying for their gym memberships during level 4, which led to a spike in transactions per day on sports memberships, including gyms and golf clubs, as soon as level 2 came in.
However, the number of sports memberships didn't increase overall but returned to what they were pre-Covid-19.
One industry that appeared immune to any change in lockdown levels was gambling, which continued to see high, consistent transactions online, through lottery tickets and betting.
Restaurant transactions steadily increased after lockdown ended. SUPPLIED
The transactional daily spending data was monitored in real-time by Westpac's technology team and when anonymised and aggregated by sector, a 50 per cent sample of the data provided this indication of what Kiwis are spending on.
Gambling saw steady transactions all through lockdown. SUPPLIED
