Are Gas Prices Eating Up Your Dining Out Budget?
“Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are.” — Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Is anyone eating out less? We typically only eat out on the weekends, but I think that’s unusual for many people. We don’t necessary eat in for budget reasons but rather because we genuinely enjoy cooking. After work, it’s nice to be home and cooking is something we like to do together. I’m sure we save money because of it.
But according to the news a lot of people are staying home because of gas prices. Mike Sanson, Editor-in-Chief at Restaurant Hospitality magazine blogs at Blogspitality and he wrote a post this summer called: Running Out of Gas.
He writes, “With the summer travel season upon us, you can bet gas prices will soar even higher than their current painful levels. That’s a bit scary because restaurants are apparently getting squeezed by consumers who are dining out less because of increases at the pump. That’s according to consulting and consumer research firm Technomic.”
“More than two-thrds of consumers surveyed said they are packing lunches instead of going out to a restaurant. About 50 percent said they are buying more ready-to-eat foods from grocery stores instead of eating at restaurants.”
He continues on to ask questions for those readers who operate restaurants (are rising gas prices hurting your business?) and for consumers (are you eating out less to save money for gas?) Click over to read the comments.
Jerry Hirsch at LA Times wrote an article earlier this month called, Gas Prices Eat into Restaurants’ Profits. He writes, “Angela Pierce and husband Nicolas used to enjoy a dinner date once a week. Now the Culver City couple patronize restaurants just twice a month, thanks to gasoline prices that are more than 70 cents a gallon higher in Southern California than a year ago.”
“Unfortunately for the $175 billion U.S. sit-down restaurant business, the Pierces aren’t the only ones staying away from their favorite eating places. In the last few months, restaurants such as Chili’s, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s — what analysts call the ‘casual dining’ category that offers table service and alcoholic beverages — have recorded small but discouraging sales declines.”
“The culprit, restaurant chains say, is soaring gas prices. But rising interest rates and increases in the minimum payments consumers must make on credit-card debt have added to the problem. ‘The Chili’s and Applebee’s of the world — some of their customers don’t have all that much money,’ said Michael Smith, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. ‘They get startled when they fill up their SUVs, so they stop dining out or they trade down to fast food.'”
“For some restaurateurs, a slowing economy might represent an opportunity. ‘I can’t quantify the degree, but we may be getting some of those guests from the casual dining restaurants as money gets tight,’ said Julia Stewart, chief executive of Glendale-based IHOP, which is considered a less expensive family restaurant. IHOP has an average guest check of $8.61.”
“Last week, IHOP reported a 3.1 percent jump in second-quarter same-store sales, the chain’s 14th consecutive quarter of positive growth.”
Makes you wonder what’s happening at Starbucks. Anybody making more coffee at home these days? Or is the opposite happening… is Starbucks the affordable luxury and more people are packing their lunches these days. What do you think?
Good question. I would say in general that gas prices are just plain eating into everything, but I can’t recall sitting around using gas prices as the reason why we weren’t going out to eat. Main reasons is usually — too expensive (when we eat out we “wine” & “dine” and get the check to prove it or the restaurants we want to try are too far away (hassle and time, not gas price keeps us away).
We tend to dine a lot more when we travel and splurge and then when we’re at home day to day #1 we LOVE to cook and #2 we can cook better and healther and more whole foods on our own.
That being said the gas crunch is definitely felt in our house, especially with my Jeep. If I wasn’t hauling crap around a lot, I’d opt for a much more gas efficient car. I think it is the overall cost of living (gas just one component) that eats into our discretionary “fun” spending.
I think many people consider their Starbucks necessary like a morning medicine (the morning caffeine drug) and don’t even think of cost or they use it to drown out their sorrows of heading to the day job that steals their soul.
Our favorite restaurant is local, so gas has no bearing on whether we go out or not. Paying for dinner for 7 does, though. We only do this once or twice a year, but it’s something we look forward to. Even if it meant using up a lot of gas…we’d do it anyway. Times I can get together with all my kids are rare! Sometimes, just my husband and I go out. But it’s a company car and they pay for the gas–and he has to put in mileage any way he can.