Eighty per cent of shopping is now done in supermarkets, a new spending survey has revealed.

And families spend an average of £42 a week on food and £9 a week on alcohol.

A fifth of food spending goes on meat, 12 per cent on fresh fruit and vegetables and five per cent on chocolate and cakes.

Today Bradford's hard-pressed market traders urged shoppers to try outlets other than the well-known chains.

Butcher David Smith, 56, pictured, of J Hutchinson in the Oastler Centre, said there used to be up to 30 meat stalls in the former John Street Market whereas now there were about seven.

He said: "I can tell the difference between our meat and supermarket meat. Our regulars come here for good meat and they know they are getting it well-butchered."

But he also recognised that many working mums need quick, ready meals at the end of the day.

"After a long day at work they don't want to start cooking. I can understand that. However, if they are having a dinner party they will come to us for something special."

Mince and stewing meat was selling well at present because people were hard up after Christmas, he said.

On average his customers spend about £6 each but as much as £20 if they are entertaining.

Greengrocer Luke Benjamin, at Global Fruits, said parents struggled to get children to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

"One mum came in and her child asked her, 'What is that?' And she told him, 'It's a cauliflower.' I couldn't believe it!

"Children think potatoes all have smiley faces on them and come out of the freezer rather than grown in the ground."

But fads for diets - such as the current banana diet - did boost sales of fruit and veg, he said.

Other figures from the Office for National Statistics spending survey show that video recorders have now joined central heating, washing machines and telephones as items which 90 per cent of households have.

Mobile phones are also booming, the Family Spending Report revealed.

Six years ago 16 per cent of families had one - now it's 65 per cent.

And the number of homes with computers has gone from 44 per cent to 49 per cent in the past year.

A quarter of homes now have dishwashers. And about three-quarters of households own a car. Among high earners, 70 per cent of households have two cars - with 20 per cent having three or more.

Four per cent of households ordered goods over the internet, spending on average £46 a week.

Average gross income was £550 a week - up seven per cent on the year before and 20 per cent higher than five years earlier.