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The U.S. restaurant industry is in a funk. Blame it on lunch.
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.
Like Mr. Parks, many U.S. workers now see stealing away for an hour at the neighborhood diner in the middle of the day as a luxury. Even the classic "power lunch" is falling out of favor among power brokers.
Re-heating leftovers in the break room microwave takes two minutes and is guaranteed to be on your diet?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:57PM (20 children)
He commanded all of the employees at Atimi Software to go out for lunch. I don't work there anymore but still make a point of leaving the office for lunch.
My coworker here orders a sandwich delivered then eats it at his desk. I don't think he takes any more time for lunch than what is required to eat the sandwich.
But then the guy is a lot more 1337 than I am. :-(
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:10AM
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(Score: 1) by metarox on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:14AM (18 children)
That's about what I do. I come in the office to get shit done for 8h and leave. The faster that can be done the better so I can get back to living and doing something else.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:49AM (16 children)
Exactly. I eat at my desk while I'm working (or, "working", but most studies show that office workers are lucky if they get in 2-3 hours of real work in a day), so I can get home before it's too dark, without having to be there at some ridiculously early hour.
On top of that, how do people even go out to lunch within an hour? Between having to walk to your car, drive there, place an order, eat, and then drive back to work and walk back to your desk, it's going to be a lot of time unless you have worthwhile eateries very close to your workplace, and not too much traffic on the way. If you can be back at your desk in an hour, you'll probably be wolfing down your food. What's the point of going out to eat if it's going to be such a hassle and you can't even take your time and enjoy it?
On top of that, it's expensive, and with today's rents, who has money for $10-20 lunches every day? I can bring in a frozen meal for $2-4 that's probably far more nutritious and far less likely to give me food poisoning, and go home an hour earlier.
Face it, this whole going-out-to-lunch thing was never a sensible idea.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:40AM (4 children)
This is why working in a downtown area rather than a suburban strip-office is really nice. Off the top of my head, I have 39 places to chose from within a 5 block radius. This is not a mega-city -- the town is about 83k people and it is encircled by rural areas till you get to another town. None of the places mentioned are fast food joints with the exception of a Pita Pit and a Jimmy Johns, nor are they chain restaurants. I am not counting coffee shops (at least 7, only one of which is a Starbucks), the two cake shops, cup-cake shop, two ice cream shops, and a donut bakery which also serves as an outlet for a local ice cream. Quick snacks of various sugar contents available at all of these extra shops.
There are office parks springing up on the edges of town, but these are of the "building-surrounded-by-parking-lot" model and the people who work there have would have to drive somewhere to get something to eat or they have merely two or three choices.
Anyway, I'm willing to bet that a lot of the reason for the death of lunch, is that so much of our world has been strip-malled.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:41AM (1 child)
Oops, just thought of 3 more eateries and 1 more coffee shop.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:43AM
The sad part I suppose, is that I've been eating at these restaraunts and their predecessors for the last 16 years and I'm bored of them. But reading this piece has made me think I should quit my bitching and just enjoy my luck. I do go out every day for my full hour.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:54PM (1 child)
That sounds wonderful. Would you be willing to disclose the city?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday June 02 2017, @12:56AM
No. People keep moving here and I don't want them to do that.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:10AM (9 children)
"how do people even go out to lunch within an hour?"
Location, location, location. When I was in New York, it seemed that damned near everyone went out to lunch. Take the elevator to the ground floor, walk to the corner deli, place your order, and eat it on the way back to the office. The luckier few could go to a sit-down diner or restaurant, and eat at a more leisurely pace.
Even in small-town America, there were restaurants within a two or three minute walk of the court house. I say "were". The economy and demographics are changing. Downtown small town America has largely been sold to immigrants, who tend to run different businesses. The town north of me, the restaurant has been replaced by a Mexican grocery/convenience store. (It's a hybrid - a lot of convenience stuff, but lots of staples on the shelves at grocery prices.) Those small towns that don't have a restaurant in easy walking distance always have a restaurant within a two to five minute drive of the courthouse.
If you only get 1/2 hour for lunch, you probably have something near enough to the court house that you can wolf down some chow. If you get an hour lunch, there is probably something close enough that you can eat a leisurely meal.
Personally, I've almost always taken my lunch to work with me. Cold cuts, or leftovers, and I generally eat it pretty fast because I only get 1/2 hour lunch. Of course, there are the vending machines. Sometimes there is something almost "good" in them, but generally, it's like institutional cooking everywhere: barely edible, crap for nutrition, and way overpriced. Since I don't work "downtown", going out is a chancy thing. Call your order in, race like mad to get there, hope you don't have to stand in line, then start eating on the way back to work. That's the perfect recipe for indigestion.
And, the expense. The local convenience store makes pretty good pizza, and really good burgers, and on Fridays, the fish is damned good. But, it's a convenience store, and everything is overpriced. Everything. Leftovers are almost free, compared to a $10 burger, fries, and coke. I'll keep the money, thank you.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:41AM (3 children)
No option to order the food before even leaving the office?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:03PM (2 children)
Oh yes, but even then, when you arrive where the food is, there will be people ahead of you. You can't avoid the line at the cash register, no matter what you do.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:28PM
I had lunch at Olive Garden yesterday. "Cash register" was right at my table. I stuck a card in it and was done in about a minute.
Seemed pretty optimal to me. No lines, no waiting, not even for the server.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:22PM
These days you can usually pay when ordering too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:02AM
Country, country, country. When I worked in France we took our employer-supplied meal chits (tickets restos), wandered over to one of numerous nearby restaurants, and had lunch there. You could have wine, if you were so inclined. And, since it was France, you weren't diving into a greasy spoon for lunch either. I loved working there...
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:14AM (3 children)
I'm not sure what this has to do with "immigrants." If lunch restaurants were feasible businesses to run in small-town America "downtown" areas, immigrants would likely be the ones running them, as they have for generations. Your Jewish deli, your Irish pub, the German sausage/hot dog cart, the Italian pizza joint, even the quick Chinese "lunch special" with eggroll were all common destinations for workers looking for a quick bite for lunch. In fact, one could argue that pizza became popular in the U.S. partly because it was a cheap lunch food that poorer workers could enjoy quickly.
Blue collar workers couldn't afford a sit-down meal for lunch -- they had neither the money nor the time for it. So immigrant restaurants often filled in the gap by providing cheaper high-calorie eats to hungry workers.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:18AM (2 children)
I forgot to say that the reason for the decline in such restaurants is a combination of fewer people having "walkable" jobs in small towns, the growth of fast food chains (which often can drive lunch prices down even further and cater to those who are willing to drive a short distance; you don't even need to get out of your car), and the trends noted in the present article for fewer people taking the time for eating lunch out.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:37AM (1 child)
I'm going to go with the #1 reason is the decline of living wage jobs, followed up by the #2 being dickhead executives that don't want to even give 10 minutes for somebody to eat. Eat on your own time is their refrain.
Time may be a factor, but not for me. It's about 10 minutes round trip for me to access at least 6-7 different restaurants on foot, and 10 minutes round trip in the car is not all that much farther and gives me about 5 time as many options. Getting there quickly and back not a problem. Even more confusing is my understanding of downtown where I live. It's just lousy with all kinds of restaurants, and simply teeming with businesses and business parks within walking distance of each other. At least where I am access and transportation is not a problem. Don't mind spending the time on myself to get away. When I was younger and more hardcore...yeah.. still spent the time to get away in restaurants. Those were the good days before Great Depression II: The Fuckening.
Most stuff is at the table within 10-15 minutes of ordering, and that's stuff that takes awhile. I can get a good meal and back to the office in less than an hour without being rushed, or being in a car. I can cut it down to 15 minutes and be back at my desk to eat if get takeout someplace and order ahead of time. Which brings up delivery, and that is also from restaurants, so their downturn is including delivery orders which eliminate at least 1/3rd of the lunch hour. There are quite a few delivery options available at different levels of service. A lot of is already Internet "enabled" with app support, websites, and portals like eat24.com and well serviced as far as tech goes now.
The consumer debt bubble is probably going to go any minute, and I'm betting, that another factor is that Americans have tapped out their credit lines too much in addition to the lack of living wage jobs pretty much anywhere.
I'm lucky if I eat lunch out 4-5 times a month. That is just to keep me from going crazy from eating cheap salads all the time. Only thing holding me back from eating out every single work day? MONEY. Those 4-5 meals cost me almost $100 once you factor in taxes, tips, and fucking glasses of iced tea that need to cost as much as a pack of cigarettes.
If you tried to eat out everyday at prices in my area it would approach rental prices, and those are above the slave wages already. It used to be no more than 30% if income to living expenses, and now it is over 100% for my entire county. For us it is literally the choice between eating in restaurants or sleeping in a bed at night. That means figuring out how to live on a food budget from the early 2000's in today's economy.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by AssCork on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:34PM
At this point we're up to a whopping eighty-seven cents. Factor in the things like glassware, time, etc, to prepare and serve a single beverage, and you're still no where near the three dollars it costs me a the local sit-down family-friendly lunching establishment.
The same $3.00 at my local grocer nets me a gallon of ice tea.
$3.00 for (maybe) $1.00 at cost. That's a steep mark-up for a restaurant that doesn't have a stage and a few poles.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:14AM
Actually going-out-to-lunch allows your mind to take a break from work so it feels less of a slavery than it is. Shorter working days could do that as well, I suppose, but who'd agree to that? Certainly not those in power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @10:24AM
If you share a room with your coworkers, you are doing something much worse than slacking, you are stealing their flow and concentration by making them focus on your disgusting munching instead of something worthwhile.