While alcohol sales at Lismore bottle shops are still rising, with an expected spike next month, the sales of tobacco and DVD rentals have levelled out.

The Lismore App spoke to some local businesses to find out if the initial coronavirus panic buying had settled down – and what’s changed in people’s shopping habits over the past five weeks since coronavirus changed life as we know it. 

In case you’ve forgotten how life used to be - the last big community event held in Lismore was Eat the Street on March 14. It’s been quiet since then. 

Alcohol

Local East Lismore bottle shop manager Tony Johnston said alcohol sales are still going up – in fact they are up 15-20% since April last year – and he expects sales to spike again next month. 

“I expect to see sales spike after May 1, when people get their Government stimulus package money that’s backdated,” Tony said.

“We should see a fair bit of extra carton buying then – that’s what they do when they get money.

“Then in June it might peter out because of tax time - people back off a bit until they get their tax cheque.

“It’s still beer and pre-mixes that are the popular selling items - nothing different.

“People aren’t buying in bulk - they are just going through it all because they are bored at home with nothing to do but gardening and drinking.”

Binge watching

The only DVD shop in the Lismore village, Network Video, saw a spike in tobacco sales at the beginning of the coronavirus panic, but it’s gone back to “normal” levels now. 

Network Video manager Kris Larnach said the shop’s party supplies business has “fallen off a cliff” along with the end to large gatherings. 

“But people are still coming in to buy balloons and special treats for kids’ birthdays,” she said.

“In the first couple of weeks, we sold more tobacco than normal, but people need to use that stock up so sales are at normal levels again. 

“The good news is that this means it could all come to an end soon - people have a different perspective now, rather than the panic at the beginning. 

“This has become the new normal now."

While DVD rentals have remained steady, Kris said there was an increase in new memberships and people reactivating memberships because they had exhausted their options on their streaming movie services and wanted to keep binge-watching TV series’.

“Out of town people are coming in and getting more weeklies because they are not coming into town very often any more, and need enough movies to watch for the week,” she said. 

“Streaming services can be expensive when you have to join more than one in order to access something you haven’t watched yet."

Kris said people often join Network Video when they move to Lismore from the city. 

“They walk in and say it’s like a time warp,” she said. 

“Going into the video shop becomes an outing – it’s an experience to come it and shop and see everything that’s available.”