In a first for Americans, a new study says we’re spending more as a country eating away from home than we are on groceries. Why slave away over a hot stove creating something that may or may not end up tasting good when you can pay someone else to do it for you?
That’s how many consumers have been feeling over the past several months, reports Bloomberg News, according to Commerce Department data released today that shows restaurants and bars raked in more in sales in March than grocery stores, which is a first.
Millennials, those darlings of the consumer world, have been pegged in the past as more willing to spend money on “food away from home,” according to a report from Morgan Stanley in November, while older people prefer to eat at home. But boy, is the industry paying attention to those lucrative millennials:
“Millennials view dining out as a social event (i.e. a chance to connect),” the National Restaurant Association says on its website. “They tend to favor fast food, deli food and pizza restaurants over coffee shops, high-end dining and casual dining. Their diversity and interest in new things draw them to more ethnic restaurants too.”
It’s not all doom and gloom for grocery stores, however — retailers like Walmart, Target and Costco also sell grocery items but aren’t included in the Commerce Department’s grocery-store category, and instead are classified as “general merchandise retailers.”
Americans’ Spending on Dining Out Just Overtook Grocery Sales for the First Time Ever [Bloomberg]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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