A pair of articles on the Wall Street Journal ponders an event I long expected would happen: willingness to eat at fast food places where food is steeply priced and of dubious quality.
Please consider Going Out for Lunch Is a Dying Tradition.
Americans made 433 million fewer trips to restaurants at lunchtime last year, resulting in roughly $3.2 billion in lost business for restaurants, according to market-research firm NPD Group Inc. It was the lowest level of lunch traffic in at least four decades.
While that loss in traffic is a 2% decline from 2015, it is a significant one-year drop for an industry that has traditionally relied on lunch and has had little or no growth for a decade.
“I put [restaurant] lunch right up there with fax machines and pay phones,” said Jim Parks, a 55-year-old sales director who used to dine out for lunch nearly every day but found in recent years that he no longer had room for it in his schedule.
Even some restaurant-company executives don’t go out for lunch. Employees at Texas Roadhouse Inc.’s Louisville, Ky., headquarters order in so often that they know the delivery drivers by name. “A lot of our folks are trying to be more efficient,” company President Scott Colosi said.
Cost is another factor working against eating out for lunch. While restaurants have raised their tabs over the past few years to cope with rising labor costs, the price of food at supermarkets has continued to drop, widening the cost gap between bringing in lunch and eating out.
Among the hardest hit are casual sit-down restaurants—such as Dine Equity Inc.’s Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday Inc. —because of the time it takes to order, get served and pay. Such establishments last year saw their steepest ever decline in lunch traffic, according to NPD.
The pain is spreading to suppliers. Meat giant Tyson Foods Inc. recently said a 29% drop in quarterly earnings was due partly to the decline in restaurant traffic.
“Consumers are buying fresh foods, from supermarkets, and eating them at home as a replacement for eating out,” Tyson Chief Executive Tom Hayes said.
Despite the traffic decline, dollar sales at lunch were flat last year because of the menu price increases. But restaurants can’t raise prices indefinitely. In fact, many now are offering lunch discounts to bring people out to eat.
$13 Burgers Hard to Swallow
Also consider Diners Are Finding $13 Burgers Hard to Swallow.
As the number of outlets serving “better” burgers—featuring nontraditional toppings and artisan buns—has skyrocketed over the past decade, so has the average burger tab, turning some customers off.
Brian Cockerline, a 20-year-old Rutgers University student, used to go to Five Guys for a burger once a week in South Plainfield, N.J. With fries and a drink, his tab was about $13.
Now, he is cooking burgers at home instead.
“I like Five Guys, but I can buy ground beef and one onion and get pretty close to the same burger for half the cost,” said Mr. Cockerline, who rarely goes to Five Guys anymore. “A hamburger, to me, is not a luxury,” he said.
Five Guys declined to comment.
“It’s not sustainable for them to expect people to show up and spend $13 on a burger on a consistent basis,” said Kurt Kane, chief concept and marketing officer at Wendy’s Co, which is among the fast-food burger chains engaged in an intense price war to attract and keep their core, budget-conscious customers. Wendy’s has a deal of four items for $4.
Mr. Cockerline now mostly goes to Wendy’s when he is too busy to cook—because he can’t make a meal for any cheaper than $4, he said.
Wendy’s created its four-for-$4 menu because it found that, on average, people only have $4 to $6 to spend on lunch each day.
Demographics, Minimum Wages, Work Trends
Proponents of $15 minimum wages need a huge dose of reality.
- Workers are only worth what business owners are freely willing to pay for them.
- As highly paid boomers retire and are replaced by lower wage earners, meal affordability is a big issue.
- Corporations attempt to squeeze every bit of work time out of employees, necessitating a bring a sack to work mentality.
Store Saturation
With Amazon smacking general merchandise stores, with auto sales in decline, with customers balking at prices of super-saturated fast food outlets, and with home prices in the stratosphere, where will GDP Growth come from?
Second Quarter Reality
- April Durable Goods shipments down 0.3%, new orders down 0.7%: April Durable Goods: Yet Another Weak Second-Quarter Report
- Wholesale Inventories: Down 0.3% in April. March revised lower from 0.2% to 0.1%.Retail Inventories: Down 0.3% in April. March revised lower from 0.5% to 0.3%. For details, please see Fed Eyes Second Quarter Recovery, Expects Trump Fiscal Policy Will Expand Economy
- Trade deficit in April widens by 3.8% with exports down and imports up: Trade Deficit Widens, Exports Weak: Economists Miss the Mark
- Tax Receipts: Federal Tax Receipts Running Below Expectations
- April New Home Sales: New Home Sales Contract 11.4%: Sales Barely Up Year-Over-Year
- April Existing Home Sales: New Home Sales Contract 11.4%: Sales Barely Up Year-Over-Year
- April Existing Home Sales: Spring Housing Flop: Existing Home Sales Decline 2.3 Percent, Inventory Issues Persist
- April Housing Starts: About that Strong April Recovery: Housing Starts and Permits Flop, March Revised Lower
- April Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Empire State Manufacturing Survey Turns Negative: Welcome News?
- April Retail Sales: Sales were at least positive (+0.4%), but they were well under economists projections: Retail Sales Disappoint Again: Department Stores Clobbered in 2017
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
More people working from home offices will also impact lunch sales at restaurants. After we moved offices and switched from 50% offices / 50% cubicles to 100% low-wall cubicles the place emptied out – my company encourages people to work from home – I’d say 30-40% of any call lasting an hour has a dog barking in the background at some point.
Two reasons this impacts restaurant sales:
1. The fridge is right there
2. We used to go out to eat as a group – very seldom did people to out of the office for lunch by themselves, but you work by yourself at home.
This is exactly right. Decentralisation. My former employer went to hot desking and told people to not come in more than 4 days a week, that equated to ‘200 people days’ a week. Small businesses can be even more flexible. This trend will screw CBD commercial real estate. I have some comments on it here:
http://denariifin.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/commercial-real-estate-under.html
Obviously the ground floor restaurant premises are the highest rent in the entire building…
Absolutely correct.
Another factor that nobody considers is smart phones. People get their work email on their phones and stopping for lunch at Chili’s, Applebees, etc. sounds like it would be pleasant but you get interrupted with so many emails and text messages that it is more trouble than it is worth. Like it or not, people expect responses to their messages within 5 minutes – it’s completely rude and selfish but that is where our culture is today.
That is exactly true about the impatience – especially with the teen-age workers.
I think this about summed it all up (along with how unhealthy “eating out” is):
“I put [restaurant] lunch right up there with fax machines and pay phones,”
“More people working from home offices…” not in the software development business (thank you SCUM….ummm…..I meant SCRUM) unless you’re talking ’bout sole proprietorship.
Zion National Park – Autumn – Lower Emerald Pools Part 1
https://mishmoments.com/2017/06/01/zion-national-park-autumn-lower-emerald-pools-part-1/
I haven’t taken a regular lunch for decades, and it’s just simply due to economics. I can go to Costco and get soups that will run about $1 each, or a cheap restaurant that in the end will be about $7. The math favors me staying in the office and leaving an hour early if I so desire, or getting paid for that hour of lunch.
Yes, to say nothing about the “opportunity cost” of lost time commuting to a place to eat out.
That is why the $13 burger place has it right. Cater to the snobs who will pay anything to be that special snowflake. It’s too much work for too little profit to compete with the cheap junk food.
In fact, they should raise their price to $23. The higher it is the more perceived snob value. Come up with a french sounding name and slow down the service.
With increasing costs everywhere and wages not matching, eating out is the first thing to be cut to save cash. Not to mention quality of what you are eating, ya Wendy’s is $4, but its cr@p.
Your Wendy’s is significantly cheaper than mine! It seems the cheapest lunch out there, with water to drink, is closer to $8 now unless you are patronizing Taco Bell.
I was quoting the article, where I am from Wendy’s comes in around $8, and you feel horrible after eating it. I am fortunate enough to bike home everyday for lunch so I save money and get exercise.
Staying in the office is all well and good but please remember that, hygienically speaking, eating at your desk is like eating in a public toilet, what with all the bacteria and such.
“Employees are to wash their hands before returning to their desks………”
I started studying during my lunchtimes for a professional certication a couple years ago. Not going out and standing in a long line saved me at least 30 minutes by itself, much less the time to actually eat.
Total cost of packing a sandwich, chips or veggies, and a piece of fruit is less than $2 a day, which compares very favourably to the $7 to $10 I used to fork out when I went out, and yeah, I’ve noticed that $13 lunches are becoming increasingly common. The balance saved over the year covers a lot of other little things that make life more enjoyable than the herding experience when one goes out. And I passed the certification with flying colours. I haven’t missed going out to lunch ever since.
Touche! RE: “…more enjoyable than the herding experience when one goes out.”
In Australia the minimum wage is currently $17.17 per hour. Casual staff get 25% more, so $22.13 per hour. Casual staff working on weekends get more, and those working on public holidays get a lot more ($50+) per hour. Because they already earn well and the food is already very expensive, we generally don’t pay tips. And because those staff do not earn incentive or any performance related pay, the service is generally very bad, with some exceptions. Take away coffee costs $4 – $5. In this environment it makes little sense to eat out, and we rarely do so.
Bravo!
Here in the states, the “progressives” have been pushing for tips of 20% to 25% for several years.
One day couple of years ago I was in a park with my family and they took pictures of me standing with my daughter and other things. When I saw those images I knew I had to loose weight. I was about 150 kilos at the time. The weight came steadily over the years, about 5 kg at the time.
I was used to snacking and buying a hamburger from 7Eleven and to top it with a pack of crisps. I have never been fond of sugary sodas but used plenty of sugar in my coffee and an occasional chocolate bar. I read few nutrition guides and realized how bad my eating habits really were. I dropped everything that can be clled “food product” and started cooking myself. I have been in restaurant business so I have always eaten home very well but outside my home I tended to eat what was available being the lazy guy I am .
The beginning was not easy. I felt physically sick for about two months. But after I lost all appetite for French Fries and crisps (potato chips) and all the rest. I suppose that Monosodium glutamate they put into those “food products” somehow increases ones appetite. And all the other artificial flavors and additives.
I started to eat self-made food with full fat cream and cheese and best meat I could find with salads and vegetables. Eating those low fat things just leaves one hungry and craving more food. Until now I have lost over 30 kilos. Am never going to be an athlete or model but I feel much better and energy levels are good.
This just came to mind since I also realized when doing my own food that how many restaurants and hamburger joints use really bad quality products. Buying them yourself and knowing how they are prepared is essential controlling the quality of your eating.
Congrats. Keep it up. All that really matters is your health.
congrats. you may also find interest in karl denninger’s writings on the subject of High Fat Low Carb. Google Denninger HFLC: https://www.google.com/search?q=denninger+hflc
Actually it’s the sugar in the fast food meal that increases your appetite. That’s the reason they push a large sugary soda, french fries (which, as a simple carbohydrate are roughly equivalent to sugar), plus there is often sugar in the main course is the sauces.
Bankers continue to print outrageous inflation. People can’t afford to eat out anymore.
Too expensive. I bring a can of Sardines with me and grab a slice of whole grain bread from the office pantry. Cost is $2.50 compared to $10 or more for lunch out. Plus I avoid the vitamin D pills the doctor told me to supplement with. It’s about priorities and I’d rather use that lunch money at the end of the year and fly off to Girona an bike.
Where will GDP growth come from? I would hazard a guess that it will come from more credit creation. I would love for some bright young economics PhD to conduct study of just how much credit turned to debt has been counted into GDP measurements. If debt is a claim on future earnings then we might understand the those rosy GDP numbers are far lower than we care to see. I remember reading that the Chinese GDP was blowing the roof off GDP figures with growth rates of ten and fifteen percent. Now I see that a few economist age guessing that China’s debt to GDP is over 300%. Makes me want to go out and borrow as much as possible to boost my income and then I’d be a rich man and could pay it back…Oh wait. Never mind.
but ponzi scams don’t need to be paid in full. they just need to keep growing — to infinity and beyond!
Yes, but only to a point. All ponzi schemes end at some point. It the world’s case the largest possible number of victims is a bit over seven billion individuals. And by definition, ponzi schemes can never be repaid in full. Unfortunately, many of the worlds leaders and business people do not wish to recognize many of their own ponzi schemes and are of the mistaken belief that their policies and actions can continue on forever. You and I know better.
“… conduct study of just how much credit turned to debt has been counted into GDP measurements ….”
More to the subject at hand, how much of that debt went to the peoples’ waistlines?
Actually, very little, no one takes out a loan to drink soft drinks or eat ice cream or cakes. the fact that so many individuals are over weight is a problem of that ranges from lack of education to lack of exercise to impulse eating to excessive consumption of carbohydrates and sugars to a whole host of other factors. But it has nothing to do with free trade or lack there of.
I dunno … those aren’t all SNAP cards I see being used in WalMart to buy junk food.
You make too big a deal out of sugar consumption and Free Trade. The one has little to do with the other. Will individuals consume food stuffs that are bad for them? Yes. Is it because of the lack of free trade? Of surely you jest, and don’t call me surely.
Another sign of the age.
People don’t write letters or even call anymore – they text.
People don’t go out to each lunch to have a conversation anymore. They would rather eat at their computer and blog.
And the younger folks wonder why they have NO network with real people. No meaningful relationships or friendships…
And fail to understand that business and future jobs are CREATED with a conversation over a nice lunch. And a nice lunch can be at the local diner or pizza joint.
But they have a 160 twitter followers!
That has to count for something!
I have had colleagues one or two decades younger than I telephone me from 50 yards away … too much time and effort to visit my office. BTW, I do occasional social media stuff at lunch sometimes … have far more followers/contacts than the youngsters, who are on their mobiles all day. Something about age, experience and having far more interesting stories to tell because I’ve actually been out in the world 😉
“have far more followers/contacts than the youngsters”
Must be something to do with your grindr account. 🙂
Ohhhhh! Pass the fire extinguisher!
Here is Cali, parents call their kid who is upstairs in his room, rather than going upstairs, now. Some even text…. And the only reason people don’t sit in the same room texting each other, without looking up from their phone long enough to notice they are in fact in the same room, is that they now all have “where’s my friend” type apps installed, that alert them that the guy they are texting, is in fact sitting on the BART seat next to them.
Of course, they also all solved the, to San Franciscans, insurmountable problem of permanent social anxiety over not appearing “well traveled” enough; by having visited every country on earth. Courtesy of GoPro and Youtube…
except for the fact that many if not most younger people ARE getting hired and receiving multiple job offers.. The reason why they don’t like to hire “older” (older than 35) people is because “no one wants to work with their father or mother…. also most companies today have either free food or nice cafeterias
Just what Google dream world do you live in? Multiple jobs offers from companies with free food (like Wendy’s and Starbuck?)! Do you even read Mish with the stats on the SALARIES they are offered?
No one wants to work with their father or mother? Except in the medical field, military, construction, engineering, finance, construction, design, sales, business development, research, etc. You know, places that experience really counts and a SINGLE poor “under 35 dude with no real world experience” will either get you killed or bankrupt your company,,,
“except for the fact that many if not most younger people ARE getting hired and receiving multiple job offers.. The reason why they don’t like to hire “older” (older than 35) people is because “no one wants to work with their father or mother…. also most companies today have either free food or nice cafeterias”
You said it!
And guess what?
Employers are now complaining that they need employees who know how to look at people when speaking to them, who can make presentations – live and in person – and who can communicate orally to others.
There will be no lack of employment opportunities for workers who do not wish to retire.
Another issue killing restaurants is skyrocketing commercial rent. Most restaurants sign long term leases, but once those keases expire they’re sitting ducks.
More rent seeking by the zoning law regulation riders.
That is what killed many of the Korean salad bar lunch places in NYC. does anyone remember there used to be many korean owned fruit & vegetable shops before places like Whole foods, citarella and all the yuppie organic shops that charge $15 for an organic sandwich put most out of business?? many had open ‘salad bars’ that charged something like $5.99 a pound.
also on a side note to avoid overeating, I pop a couple extra adderall tablets and mix with kratom. unfortunately some days the mix is too strong and I end up spending the rest of the day on the ‘porcelin bus’
Convenient lunch foods can be wholesome: hard boiled egg, whole wheat tortilla, melted cheese, fruit, yogurt, walnuts, peanut butter, hummus.
Nah, the workers spit in the food, and few places serve quality ( which is not expensive if you prepare your own or even farm own ).
What 2banana says – it depends where you are and who you mix with. Plenty of social in good communities, open house or meals… ever been trekking – minimalist but you make friends like no other.
Not sure if these figures are right
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40115541
on homelessness in CA.
BBC? They’re not reputable.
I wouldn’t go that far, since they are reputable in at least a few cases, but it would be fair to say that they are, in any case, state-sponsored media.
True story: A few years ago, there was a round-table that featured a BBC-type and a guy from RT. The BBC-type was bloviating on about how RT was a state-sponsored propaganda outlet, so when the RT-guy returned the observation about the BBC being state-sponsored as well, the BBC-type blew a circuit-breaker and melted down on line.
I take my own lunch to work half of the time and take a good nap in my car after i eat.
Remember “Wall St” in 1986?
“Lunch is for wimps”
My first day at work I ran out, grabbed 2 slices of pizza, ran back, and almost got fired for it. Didn’t eat lunch for a few years. Years later I would have people bring me back something to eat at my desk.
Doggy bags.
First 5 yrs in a restricted work area. No food. There was a cafeteria near the bathrooms but I wasn’t allowed to use the bathroom either. Fun times!
Worked for a company that gave me 5 weeks of paid vacation, but the look on my boss’ face when I put in to take three of them in a row was precious.
Matthew Lau: Wynne’s Ontario Liberals know a $15 minimum wage will kill thousands of jobs, but they’re doing it anyway.
http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/matthew-lau-wynnes-ontario-liberals-know-a-15-minimum-wage-will-kill-thousands-of-jobs-but-theyre-doing-it-anyway
“They like it- so we keep doing it to them.”
K Wynne, Political S&M Queen
The fact that it will kill jobs is irrelevant to the Marxists; they will simply replace the lost wages with welfare benefits. As long as the sheep keep voting “Marxist”, d.b.a. “Democrat” in the USA, “Liberal” in Canada.
Poor people vote for Marxists.
So there’s a huge demand for poor people and supply is potentially unlimited.
“Workers are only worth what business owners are freely willing to pay for them.”
Don’t give them any ideas Mish.
They see ‘freely’ as the problem and will run with it.
“With Amazon smacking general merchandise stores, with auto sales in decline, with customers balking at prices of super-saturated fast food outlets, and with home prices in the stratosphere, where will GDP Growth come from?”
Come on Mish, that is absurd. You sound like a Keynesian. Lower prices from Amazon mean HIGHER GDP due to all of us having more money to spend on other things.
“With Amazon smacking general merchandise stores, with auto sales in decline, with customers balking at prices of super-saturated fast food outlets, and with home prices in the stratosphere, where will GDP Growth come from?” Come on Mish, that is absurd. You sound like a Keynesian. Lower prices from Amazon mean HIGHER GDP due to all of us having more money to spend on other things.
Your comment is absurd. That people have more money to spend is meaningless unless they actually spend it. They haven’t. Moreover, you missed the key point. There will be less building of general merchandise and fast food stores. Those stores hire people, need inventories, etc etc.
Indeed, if you don’t spend it, but instead try to save it, your savings will be inflated away and fees-charged away toward nothing, and the rentier class will then sink it into immobile- or semi-mobile assets.
One of the original legal purposes given for English estate taxes was to free up capital to get the economy going rather than have it continue mouldering away in land, castles, arts, tapestries, rugs, etc.
Home prices are high. That will encourage supply creation. GDP growth.
For a while, just like tulip prices and Easter Island head prices and ostrich egg prices.
Home prices will be heading lower … along with a lot of other stuff.
What missing behind this analysis is that higher healthcare costs are increasingly getting passed from employer to employee in higher shared premiums and especially deductibles. These higher deductibles effectively work as a net salary decrease for the employee. What happens when the employee gets a effective decrease in salary, they stop eating out at lunch very often. And they cut the cord for their cable. And they don’t spend so much on retail. And they don’t go to baseball games. Healthcare costs are increasing at 9% a year, at roughly 20% of the economy that come to a 1.8% increase a year in total GDP. The rest of the economy is contracting to pay for healthcare.
The interesting thing is as deductibles go up, people stop going to the doctor. So where is that 1.8% coming from, gov’t spending through medicare and medicaid. The entire increase is GDP is through gov’t spending for healthcare.
Someone please correct me if I”m wrong, I actual hope I am.
People aren’t eating out for lunch as often as they did. But that is because they spent $4 for coffee on the way to work in the morning (something they didn’t do 30 years ago).
“the price of food at supermarkets has continued to drop,”
…
Lidl Effect … about to take the US by storm.
Read a recent story about how they are ready and willing to take on Walmart … and how their prices will be up to 50% lower. The first stores in the US open on June 15th. Live near one. Had a talk this morning with the butcher manager at grocer located about a mile from Lidl. They are SCARED. Since the notice was made last year they have been busily cutting prices (and number of products) … he said his department margin was 22% versus the 35% the chain wanted … and the bigshots from corporate were showing up today to tell them what they were doing wrong. Even with the price cuts they are still (way) too high to compete with Lidl. He said corporate has been telling them to emphasize quality … while the store pushes back with need to lower prices further.
There will be 5 grocers (including a Walmart) in a stretch less than 2 miles. Someone(s) not going to make it.
We are getting Aldi’s in OC, CA. Should reshape the supermarket landscape here, which is easily the most competitive in the nation.
Here’s a tip if you want to shop at Aldi’s. Go to all of them to see what different products they carry.
There are 4 Aldi’s in the county where I live. All tend to carry some products that the other Aldi’s do not.
Lunch traffic down, chain restaurant closures (‘consolidation’), the proliferation of food carts/trucks (practically self-serve)…
…and yet the US has been adding unprecedented numbers of wait staff & bartender jobs FOR YEARS, according to gov’t statistics.
IT DOESN’T ADD UP. Either the empty/closing restaurants I see around me are a mirage, or the gov’t. job numbers are fiction (and have been for a loooooong time now). If the latter, then why do we (Mish included) continue to cite/quote said numbers?
Americans have turned their backs to the US Gov’t (& MSM). Perhaps it is time to stop pretending that anything factual comes from official gov’t. sources… readers stopped believing the their BS a long time ago. Let’t stop parroting obvious, provable LIES. Please.
A lot of restaurants (and small businesses) are hanging on by their nails.
In the old days the period between recessions (legitimate growth) allowed business to squirrel away for a rainy day. The low growth stagger since the “recovery” started has not provided much (if any) opportunity to squirrel away. A recession will see many close up sooner rather than later … why I strongly feel the next recession will be a little more than garden variety.
True, true. Very well put.
“Proponents of $15 minimum wages need a huge dose of reality.”
They aren’t interested in reality. They are interested in their propaganda, just as they are with wage equality propaganda.
$15 an hour will push up union contract wages. It is an ulterior motive to push for higher minimum wages. Obama and Hillary talked of equal pay, while paying their female staff less than their male staff. Michael Medved recently noted that pay is largely equal until women begin to have children.
Yes, they are very addicted to their non-stop “virtue signaling.”
JD Power last week forecasted weak new vehicle sales for May at 16.9 million SAAR.
GM today forecast even lower … 16.6 million SAAR.
Other “good” news was GM dealer inventory rose to 101 days … the rubber is definitely meeting the road … or at least the blacktop on the dealer lot …
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2017/jun/Deliveries-May-2017.pdf
How horrible for Government Motors.
Let’s see, where did I leave that world’s smallest violin?
“As highly paid boomers retire and are replaced by lower wage earners, meal affordability is a big issue.”
As higher paid boomers are laid off and replaced with lower wage earners. Even when i was in the military, long ago, i heard stories of career military being cut just before they were eligible for retirement benefits.
I almost never go out to eat. Can’t afford to.
The white collar set is also pretty health conscious- and restaurant food is generally worse for you portion/ingredient-wise.
Then too-a lot of firms have food brought in or subsidized because they know many people will work at their desks and eat-because they are addicted to screens. Google knows they can shave the lunch hour to 30 minutes and recoup lost time
Then too-Work at Home
Then too-Brownbagging it is popular. Sit in the park and hang out instead of a restaurant.
Then too-US restaurants are seating obsessed and want the turnover and tips. It’s not very fun
I never go out for lunch-hate it. I go running, gym or work through it and leave early and have a nice home-cooked meal
I go the grocery store during lunch most days. I can kill 2 birds with one stone. Buy groceries and grab something from the salad bar or deli for lunch.
This “online shopping is eating brick-and-mortar” might be true for silly consumer millennials…
The only people who shop at Amazon must be those who are employed, price-insensitive but determined to buy by brand name, rather than look around. But how many people truly KNOW with that certainty what brand, style and features they want without seeing, holding and trying the item?
We have a family restaurant for 38 years – business is little down this year – we have good days and bad days. But people will still come in sooner or later – one, they get tired of cleaning their own dishes – two, TASTE…….taste still matters – three, time, people are in a hurry and yes we are a sit down establishment but we are fast getting our food out to the customers.
Lunch hour — yet another consumer discretionary item that was crowded out by out-of-control Obamacare premiums
No big deal. Numbers are down because they are having it delivered.