Workers in the US prefer to attend company’s lunch spaces rather than getting out to a restaurant.
The US’ restaurant industry seems to be skipping lunch. Americans had visited 433 times less restaurants for lunch in 2017 when compared with last year, which caused US$3.2 billion in lost business for restaurants, as revealed by NPD Group Inc, a market research firm.
This figure is 2% less from 2015, and it was the lowest level of lunch traffic in at least four decades. The reasons? Home-office and a lot of “lunch and learn” meetings where business partners have food delivered. Affordable food at supermarkets also contributed to these figures as employees prefer to bring lunch and eat at the dining spaces in offices.
Who’s left hungry? Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN), a meat giant, recently announced a 29% drop in quarterly earnings caused partly by the decline in restaurant traffic.
Another ingredient of the lunch shortage is “the soaring price of a restaurant lunch ticket, which jumped 19.5% at $7.59 since the recession,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that home-office has increased from 19% in 2003 to around 24% in 2015. What is the best menu option to sit people at the lunch table? “Restaurants that cater to consumers’ desire for faster and healthier food,” recommends Duff & Phelps Corporation, a corporate-finance advisory firm.
