Jim Woods

It's No Picnic for Restaurants

by Jim Woods   01/12/09

Among those dining out less often, 47% said it's because they're saving more money -- 25 points higher than the September survey. At the same time, there has been a 10-point increase in the percentage of consumers who said they're eating more meals at home (48%).

The Consumer Dining Revolution

Not surprisingly, for the fourth consecutive survey upscale/fine dining restaurants have taken the biggest hit in terms of dining frequency. Only 2% of respondents said they'll dine at them more often during the next 90 days, while 42% said less often (net difference score = -40 points).

High-end casual restaurants are also taking a big hit (-33).

Fast-food restaurants (-3), on the other hand, have actually managed to improve, ever so slightly, since our last survey in September (when the category registered a -4). That's a notable achievement these days.

We also looked at which individual chains respondents said they'll be spending more and less money at, and then compared the current results with the findings from our previous survey. We looked at 124 restaurant chains in the survey.