Supermarkets report that 58p of every £1 spent by shoppers go in their tills, which is up from a decade ago after retailers have expanded into non-food categories.

Retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda get their hands on £181bn of the UK’s retail sales - almost 60%.

This is a surge on a decade ago when the supermarkets pocketed 46% of retail sales, £101bn, as supermarkets have added new non-food categories into their stores.

The report by spending watchdog, The Payments Council, shows the amount of petrol at supermarkets has also tripled in a decade to take almost 33p in every pound spent on fuel.

A Payments Council spokesman said: “Supermarkets have grabbed share from up and down the high street.”

The report outlined the shift in how Brits allocate their money and what it goes on. Consumers spent £58bn on entertainment in 2011, up from £37bn in 2001 and spending in pubs had inceased 7% to £14.5bn. Spending in restaurants and cafes had doubled to £26bn.

Meanwhile, spending in DIY stores had halved from 2001 to 2011 and newsagents lost almost a fifth of their trade.

The report also found that less than 66% of our payments made in shops are paid with cash, against 75% in 2001.