02Hybrid working has altered the patterns of spending in city centres
Focusing in on city-centre spending transactions by workers shows how their patterns of spending have changed through the week. Figure 4 shows the share of overall spending that each day of the week accounts for in a city centre. In central London, workers spent the most on a Friday in 2019. This has now shifted to Thursdays. Meanwhile, Monday – a popular work from home day3 – has had the largest reduction in its share of any day.
In other large city centres, workers have shifted spend away from weekdays to weekends. Saturdays have overtaken Fridays as the day workers are most likely to spend money. This may reflect the different roles that city centres play in the leisure time of workers in these cities compared to London, with the latter having a large number of other high streets to serve as alternatives at weekends.
Figure 4: In London Thursdays now account for the largest share of worker spend, but in other big cities spending has shifted to Saturdays
Two specific segments of work-related spending are lunchtime food and after-work drinks. Both have seen similar shifts to those seen in total spend.
The after-work drink remains a phenomenon in London but – reflecting hybrid working patterns – Figure 5 suggests that Thursday has become the new Friday. A quarter of all worker pub spend happened on a Friday in London in 2019, but this was just under a fifth in 2024.
The outlook for the after-work drink in other large city centres is less positive though. In 2019, Friday was the most popular day for worker pub spend. But the contribution to total pub and bar spend fell for every weekday between 2019 and 2024, with Saturday becoming by far the most popular day. Assuming that hybrid work has meant that overall spending has fallen, this would suggest that the post work drink in big city centres outside of London has taken a hit as a result of changing working patterns.
Figure 5: Thursdays are now the most popular day for an after-work drink in London, but after-work socialising appears to be less popular post-pandemic in other large city centres
Figure 6 shows the same pattern for food and restaurants. Fridays have become relatively less popular for this spend, with Thursdays now the day with the highest spend in central London and Saturday elsewhere.
Figure 6: Shifts in spending on food reflect those seen in pubs and bars
