A clothing store has opened at Kolkata’s Barasat on Tuesday.

Ever since several relaxations were announced by the Centre in the ongoing third phase of the lockdown, the consumption pattern of items like fuel, liquor and apparel have witnessed a discernible change from the third and fourth week of April.

According to magicpin, an offline discovery and rewards platform, the first week of May saw liquor stores witnessing a 1,500 per cent rise in transactions over the previous week.

The government had allowed sale of liquor from May 4, which is expected to earn states much-needed revenue. However, on the first day itself chaos prevailed outside some liquor vends across the country as people thronged the shops, throwing social distancing caution to the winds.

Besides liquor, apparel and electronics also saw a 30-70 per cent rise in transactions, the data revealed. In the second and third weeks of April, the items saw a fall in transactions by 10-30 per cent.

This comes with the Centre partially lifting restrictions for e-commerce companies to deliver non-essentials, prompting customers to make a beeline for certain products that became essential over time like mobiles and other electronic equipment.

Interestingly, the rise in transactions in pharmaceutical and healthcare items saw a decline in the week beginning May 4. Corresponding to the previous week, the rise in transactions of healthcare items dipped to 0-10 per cent from 10-30 per cent.

Before the imposition of the lockdown, there was a panic buying of healthcare items like hand sanitisers and disinfectants.

Moreover, with the government allowing the plying of private vehicles and two-wheelers with riders in the third phase of lockdown, which ends on May 17, consumption of fuel also saw a spurt. In the first week of May, fuel and petrol products saw a rise in transaction between 30-70 per cent.

The data also reveals that most of the rise in consumption was witnessed in Bengaluru, Pune, Thane and Lucknow. All the cities, which are Covid-19 hotspots, have seen a 20-30 per cent rise in transactions from the previous week.