Most of the people reading this will order delivery or go out to eat tonight. How do we know? Sales at restaurants and bars overtook spending at grocery stores in March for the first time ever, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday (which dates to 1992).
Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be, given that this situation probably sounds familiar to you..
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Millennial: I WILL go home and cook dinner tonight. I need to save money for next year’s Coachella ticket and a new iPhone. Plus, it’s healthier.
[GETS TEXT FROM FRIEND]
Friend: “Hey! me and the fam are checking out that new ramen spot in Brooklyn tonight at 8. Probably going to grab a beer after. Roll through!”
Millennial: “Sounds tight. Everyone’s saying that place is awesome.” Doh.
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An army of millennials with spending money and Instagram accounts are set to overtake the baby boomer generation this year. Millennials have been targeted as being more willing to spend on “food away from home,” according to a November report from Morgan Stanley. Good news for restaurants, terrible news for grocery stores.
On its website, the Restaurant Association advises, “Millennials view dining out as a social event (i.e. a chance to connect). They tend to favor fast food, deli food and pizza restaurants over coffee shops, high-end dining and casual dining. Their diversity and interest in new things draw them to more ethnic restaurants too.”
Typical. (Photo: Flickr)
Meanwhile, older folks in the U.S. are putting more of their income toward groceries, and less towards going out to eat, according to a Gallup Survey conducted last November.
It should be noted that retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco also offer grocery items in their stores, yet they’re not tallied in the Commerce Department’s grocery-store category. They’re listed under “general merchandise retailers,” which showed a pickup in sales last month, according to Bloomberg. Regardless, America’s youth has a different attitude towards food than their parents, and they have the food-filled Instagram feeds to prove it.
[via Bloomberg]