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posted by n1 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the instant-noodles dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 2) by ese002 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:32AM (11 children)

    by ese002 (5306) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:32AM (#518022)

    With certain conditions.

    1) There is a good selection within walking range. Just leaving the office on foot makes a big difference for my sanity. I don't think snarfing a sandwich and circling the parking lot would have anywhere near the same effect.

    -or-

    2) I have a cadre of co-workers that I actually like that are reliably willing to go out. I've worked for startups where a lot of important ideas were hashed out over lunch. A change of venue is a big deal.

    Eating in definitely saves money. Saving time is more questionable. Frozen dinners get tiresome very quickly. Preparing food good enough I can handle repeats (or alternatively with variety) takes time at home that is more precious to me than the lunch hour.

    My newish job has marginal lunch prospects within easy walking range and better options withing stretch range (20 minutes). I'm actually thinking about acquiring a kick scooter to pull those better options into easy range. IMHO, driving solo to eat lunch is depressing. Driving solo to eat fast food is disgusting.

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:29AM (10 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:29AM (#518044) Journal

    "2) I have a cadre of co-workers that I actually like that are reliably willing to go out."

    I miss those days. There was a time when I worked with people that I liked and respected. Nowadays, not so much. Ohh, there are a couple, but our schedules never match, and I'd rather avoid most of the people around me.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:00AM (6 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:00AM (#518059) Journal

      What kind of job is that? coding sweat shop? Microsoft hardcore fans? last American in a Indian-H1B army? ;)
      Or is the people seriously uneducated or lack cognitive ability?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:18AM (4 children)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:18AM (#518141)

        I can't speak for him, but sometimes you just find yourself with coworkers that aren't stupid by any means, but you just don't "mesh": you don't have enough interests in common, you don't really like them well enough to want to hang out at a restaurant with them, etc. Personally, as an introvert it's pretty uncommon for me to find someone I really want to spend time outside of work with, especially if they're male. It doesn't help that most engineers are conservative and religious, so I'm constantly thinking twice about everything I say and generally "wearing a mask" when I'm around them, so the last thing I want to do is spend even more time around them (unlike when I'm actually at work, where I mostly just sit in front of a computer and only interact with others when I have a question or they ask me something, or if there's a meeting).

        • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:44AM (3 children)

          by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:44AM (#518151) Journal

          Religious engineers, must be USA ;)

          If they ever disagree with your professional advice. Just tell them that god told you it must be like you said. :p

          Why not move on? keeping face at that level all day seems like a extra work burden you are not paid extra for in comparison with other workplaces.

          • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:21PM (2 children)

            by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:21PM (#518261)

            Why not move on? keeping face at that level all day seems like a extra work burden you are not paid extra for in comparison with other workplaces.

            Move on where? They're all like that. I'd have to somehow cross over into an entirely different specialty, like PHP web development, to get away from it.

            • (Score: 1) by Skittles on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:16PM (1 child)

              by Skittles (1651) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:16PM (#518321)

              My experience in the Northwest (I assume you're American) is the exact opposite. Do you like rain?

              • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:33PM

                by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:33PM (#518332)

                Rain's fine with me. I mainly do embedded programming; are you saying that engineers like that in PNW aren't a bunch of religious conservatives?

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:48PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:48PM (#518274) Journal

        Uneducated is part of it. We have our share, or more than our share, who would lose an argument with a box of rocks.

        Age is another part of it. I don't have the time or the inclination to get involved in mere children's drama - and they don't have time for an old bastard like me.

        What we might call "culture" is another part of it. We have some black folk who don't want anything to do with whites, and vice versa.

        Then there's the entire gender thing. Half, or maybe even a little more than half, our people are female. I'm to old to even bother with a discussion about platonic relationships.

        Finally, but not least - some of the happiest days of my life were spent in the company of assholes. Crazy bastards, people who would do just about anything as part of a challenge. We were the wild bunch. People at work are mostly tame and docile. I don't even know how to relate to people who have never actually DONE anything.

        I'm not saying that any of them are "bad" people. Even the ones I think are just plain stupid have their uses, and some of them are even "good" people. We just don't have common references, common interests. The one group that I socialize the most with, are the motor cyclists. When the conversation turns to bikes, we all can learn from the others. Two of my coworkers are on vacation right now, trekking across New Mexico. The plan was to go from there up to Colorado to visit family, but the wimps heard something about snow in Colorado Springs, and decided to turn east instead. You can believe I'm going to give them hell when they get back next week. When I was their age - - - but that's a different story.

    • (Score: 2) by Sulla on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:34AM (2 children)

      by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:34AM (#518098) Journal

      I stopped taking lunches when I realized it meant I could go home sooner and that the company did not care if I ate while I worked if I choose to eat at all. I have recently been using lunch as an excuse to walk around with a coworker while in a non-office setting to hear out their problems with various coworkers / projects so that I can defuse them better. In general I find lunch a huge waste of time that could be spent coming into work late or going home early.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:19AM (1 child)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:19AM (#518142)

        Speak for yourself; maybe you don't need food mid-day, but I certainly do. My performance would go to utter shit if I didn't get some kind of meal in there.

        • (Score: 2) by Sulla on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:19PM

          by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:19PM (#518292) Journal

          Should have said that better. Lunch is a huge waste of time for me. Fully understand the desire of others to get out/eat/take a break, I just don't need it. My preferred employers are ones that are good about making sure not to bug people on their lunch breaks or make it seem like you should be working instead, but also not get bitchy at you for working through it.

          --
          Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam