|
Proprietary Data Insights Top Stock Searches This Month
|
|
Restaurants |
Do You Think It Costs More To Eat At Restaurants Or Cook At Home? |
Happy long weekend. With any luck you’re taking Friday off and turning it into a super long, four-day weekend. Any way you slice it, there’s a decent chance you’ll be traveling between today and early next week. If so – or even if not – do you plan on eating at a restaurant over Memorial Day weekend? Turns out that eating out has become the exception rather than the rule for quite a few Americans. According to a Vericast survey of 1,954 consumers across generations and socioeconomic statuses, 45% plan to spend less money dining out in 2023. Nearly two-thirds think “rising prices are making restaurant dining too expensive.” A full 70% of baby boomers feel this way. Among all respondents, 61% claim these high prices have made them less brand loyal. In fact, coupons and discounts appear to be a major driver of dining out behavior:
Taking it to the next level of extreme, 47% of frequent fast casual visitors, 39% of millennials with kids, 33% of all millennials and 32% of Generation Z will not eat at or order from a restaurant without a coupon or discount. Money talks and you know what walks. Back to the idea of spending more on fast food with a coupon or discount. Among these groups, large numbers say they’ll spend more at fast food restaurants if they’re getting a deal. Sixty-nine percent of millennials with children feel this way, followed by 68% of Gen Z, 62% of frequent quick service diners and 51% across all survey participants. So let’s sort out what we know so far:
You might think this would lead people to eat more at home and like it. Maybe you can save money and be healthier by cooking for yourself and your family in your own kitchen. Incredibly, 41% of people in the survey think that “with rising grocery store prices, it’s not necessarily cheaper to eat at home.” The Juice thinks these people must be the ones throwing steak and lobster on the barbeque this weekend! Here’s what the actual data says in the latest inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Of course, it all depends on what you put on your plate. You can see the full detailed list here, but there’s considerable year-over-year divergence depending on what you buy:
The Bottom Line: Like pretty much everything in our economy these days, it’s situational. With housing, it depends on where you live or where you’re looking to live and if you want to rent or buy. With food, location certainly matters, but a lot has to do with what you’re putting on your plate and whether you’re doing it at home or on the outside. On the ground in Los Angeles and via our colleagues in New York, San Francisco and other big cities across the country, The Juice can tell you that, despite all the economic and urban pain we keep hearing about, bars and restaurants are busy. Commercial corridors are even bustling with the glaring exception of most big downtowns. This leaves us wondering: Will this haves and have nots economy ever end? Or, coming out of COVID, is it the actual new normal?
News & Insights Freshly Squeezed |
|
Want to get content like this directly to your inbox? Then we urge you to sign up for our newsletter here |