Stressful Christmas queues drive frenzied shoppers online

• Top Christmas stressors are never-ending queues at supermarkets and busy car parks
• Christmas shopping rated more stressful than flying
• Dr David Lewis reveals top methods to avoid Christmas stress

With three weeks to go until the big day, frazzled festive shoppers are increasingly swapping the High Street for online to avoid adding to the stress of the biggest day of the year. New research from online supermarket ocado.com reveals that nearly a quarter of Brits (24%) rate Christmas shopping as one of the most stressful scenarios, ranking even more stressful than dealing with rush hour traffic (22%), filling in forms (12%) and even flying (9%).

To avoid the pitfalls of the season of stress, almost half of Brits (47%) are choosing to do all of their shopping online, including their food shop, specifically to avoid the stresses of packed supermarkets. As well as the dread of massive queues at the check-out, the top causes of stress for shoppers were ranked as:

• Lengthy, slow queues at the supermarket (62%)
• No parking spaces (47%)
• Unavailable items at the supermarket (38%)
• The rising cost of the Christmas shop (33%)

The research also reveals that seasonal stress is dominating the build up to Christmas, with Brits’ top Christmas woes including worrying about financing the Christmas season (28%), finding the perfect presents (28%) and getting the house spick and span in preparation for the arrival of visiting family (8%).

To help consumers combat the stress of Christmas shopping, ocado.com has partnered with stress psychologist Dr David Lewis and designed an one-stop Christmas shop so customers can avoid the queues, parking problems and carefully manage their budget.

“Festive cheer all too easily gives way to seasonal shopping stress for three main reasons,” explains psychologist Dr David Lewis, author of One Minute Stress Management. Dr David Lewis has worked with ocado.com to identify the key reasons behind British Christmas stressors:

• Crowds, long queues at check-outs and parking headaches can quickly lead to frustration, irritation, exhaustion and anxiety which all threaten our goals
• The presence of others around us during Christmas shopping makes us more easily stressed as part of our ancient ‘fight or flight’ survival mechanism
• Concerns over disappointment with your choice of gifts can lead to feelings of inadequacy and guilt

Jason Gissing, ocado.com Co-Founder adds: “Shopping in store at Christmas is an unpleasant and totally unnecessary experience. There’s no need to fight over that final turkey – our one-stop Christmas shop has everything covered and what’s more, you don’t even have to get off the sofa to get it all delivered to your table.”

Solve the stress and shop online. To see the full Ocado Christmas offering, visit ocado.com/christmas

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