Seven in Ten Americans Cooking More Instead of Going Out to Save ...

NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --?One of the ways people gauge when an economic recovery is occurring is when Americans start spending more on things like eating out in restaurants. People are dining out. Over three in five U.S. adults (63%) have dined at a fast food restaurant chain in the past month and about half have dined at a local casual dining establishment (53%) and a casual dining restaurant chain (50%). Fewer have dined at either a local fine dining establishment (18%) or a fine dining restaurant chain (9%) while 13% of Americans have not dined at any of these types of restaurants in the past month.

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These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,451 adults surveyed online between March 12 and 19, 2012 by Harris Interactive.

Changes in dining out be havior

While Americans are dining out, they are still cutting back in how often they do so. In looking at the past six months, about one-third say they are eating less frequently at fast food chains (36%), casual dining restaurant chains (34%), and local casual dining restaurants (34%). But one glimmer of economic hope is about one in ten Americans say they are eating at these three types of restaurants more frequently.

Interestingly, there is a gender difference as women are more likely than men to say they are dining out less frequently in these three types of restaurants over the past six months. For example, two in five women (41%) say they are dining less frequently at fast food restaurants compared to 31% of men.

Seven in ten Americans (71%) say they find themselves cooking more instead of going out in order to save more money, while over half (57%) say going out used to be a regular occurrence but it is now a luxury. On the flip side, thre e in five U.S. adults (60%) disagree with the notion that they will eat out as often but now usually at a lower priced restaurant. Only three in ten Americans (29%) say they will cut spending in other places in order to still be able to dine out.

Factors in Choosing a Restaurant

There are many different reasons for choosing a restaurant when deciding to go out to eat. For nine in ten Americans (90%) good prices are an important reason while for 84% the mood they are in (for either type of cuisine or type of food) is important. Other things that are important in choosing a restaurant are having a specific menu item people enjoy (81%), a convenient location (80%), broad variety of menu items (78%), special offers (59%), and healthy menu items that fit a dietary need (56%). Two things that three in five Americans say are not important when they choose a restaurant are choosing the same restaurant (59%) and a restaurant with a menu that usually has new ite ms (61%)

So What?

"Consumer restaurant behavior continues to evolve as they manage their budgets in an ongoing tight economy.? At the beginning of the economic downturn we saw consumers saving money by changing their behavior in two ways: eating out less frequently and shifting their eating-out dollars away from Casual Dining towards Fast Food/Quick Service restaurants," according to Mary Bouchard, Vice President and Thought Leader at Harris Interactive.? ?"Now, with several years of experience with constrained budgets, they have shifted even further from the busy-lifestyle convenience of eating out on a regular basis to making time for cooking at home.? When they do eat out, not surprisingly, price is still a primary component of their decision making process."

"Interestingly, while consumers still are driven by a favorite type of food/favorite dish in restaurant selection, the industry overall has begun to see a positive shift towards healthy eating behavior," continues Ms. Bouchard.? "As our recent Harris Poll EquiTrend? also shows, restaurants that offer a broad range of healthy options, such as Subway which is the highest rated quick service restaurant brand, have shown increased revenues and many restaurants of all genres have increased their offering/sales of low calorie/low fat dishes."

TABLE 1
TYPES OF RESTAURANTS EATEN AT IN PAST MONTH
"Please review the following types of restaurants and select the types of restaurant(s) you have eaten out at in the past month for either lunch or dinner?"

Base: All adults

	Total	$34,999 or less	$3 5,000- $49,999	$50,000 -$74,999	$75,000 - $99,999	$100,000 or more
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Fast Food Restaurant Chain (i.e. McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, etc.)	63	65	65	66	66	60
Local Casual Dining Restaurant	53	40	52	54	63	66< /p>
Casual Dining Restaurant Chain (i.e. Applebee's, Chili's, Olive Garden, etc.)	50	37	50	57	58	60
Local Fine Dining Establishment	18	12	13	13	19	35
Fine Dining Restaurant Chain (i.e. Ruth's Chris, Morton's Steak House, etc.)	9	7	11	5	8	18
None of these	13	17	11	9	10	8

Note: Multiple responses allowed.

TABLE 2
CHANGES IN DINING OUT OVER PAST SIX MONTHS
"Thinking of how often you have eaten at each of these types of restaurant chain in the past 6 months, would you say you have eaten at this type of restaurant??"

Base: All adults

	More Frequently (NET)	Much more frequently	Somewhat more frequently	About the same	Less Frequently (NET)	Somewhat less frequently	Much Less frequently	Haven't eaten at this type of restaurant in past 6 months
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Fast Food Restaurant Chain	12	4	8	39	36	17	19	12
Local Casual Dining Restaurant	12	4	7	42	32	14	18	14
Casual Dining Restaurant Chain	9	3	6	40	34	15	19	17
Local Fine Dining Establishment	6	2	4	27	27	9	18	39
Fine Dining Restaurant Chain	5	2	2	24	26	8	18	46

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 3
CHANGES IN DINING OUT OVER PAST SIX MONTHS ? By Gender
"Thinking of how often you have eaten at each of these types of restaurant chain in the past 6 months, would you say you have eaten at this type of restaurant??"
Those Saying Somewhat/Much Less Frequently

Base: All adults

	Less Frequently	Gender
		Men	Women
	%	%	%
Fast Food Restaurant Chain	36	31	41
Casual Dining Restaurant Chain	34	31	37
Local Casual Dining Restaurant	32	27	37
Local Fine Dining Establishment	27	26	27
Fine Dining Restaurant Chain	26	25	27

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 4
FACTORS IN CHOOSING A RESTAURANT
"Please think about what drives you to choose a restaurant when you go out to eat. How important are each of the following when you choose to eat at a specific restaurant?"

Base: All adults

	Important (NET)	Very Important	Important	Not Important (NET)	Not that important	Not at all important
	%	%	%	%	%	%
A restaurant which has good prices	90	44	46	10	7	3
It depends on the mood I am in for either a type of food (e.g. pasta, salad, sandwiches, burgers) or type of cuisine (e.g American, Chinese, Thai, etc.)	84	31	53	16	12	4
The restaurant offe rs a specific menu item that I enjoy	81	25	56	19	14	5
A convenient restaurant location for me	80	25	55	20	16	4
A restaurant menu which has a broad variety of menu items to choose from	78	21	56	22	18	5
A restaurant that usually has special offers	59	17	41	41	32	9
They have healthy menu items that fit my dietary needs	56	16	40	44	31	13
I usually choose the same restaurant when I go out for meal	41	8	33	59	44	15
A restaurant menu which usually has new items to choose from	39	7	32	61	48	13

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 5
CHANGES IN DINING OUT HABITS
"Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements."

Base: All adults

	Agree (NET)	Strongly agree	Somewhat agree	Disagree (NET)	Somewhat disagree	< span class="prnews_span">Strongly agree	Not at all sure
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
I find myself cooking more instead of going out in order to save money	71	41	29	26	17	9	4
Going out to eat used to be a regular occurrence for me, but now it's a luxury	57	25	32	39	26	13	4
I will out as often, but now it is usually at a lower priced restaurant	36	10	26	60	36	24	4
I will cut spending in other places in order to still be able to dine out	29	6	23	66	37	29	5

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 6
CHANGES IN DINING OUT HABITS ? by Generation and Gender
"Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements."
Percent saying Strongly/Somewhat Agree

Base: All adults

	Agree	Generation				Gender
		Echo Boomers (18-35)	Gen X (36-47)	Baby Boomers (48-66)	Matures (67+)	Men	Women
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
I find myself cooking more instead of going out in order to save money	71	72	73	71	62	65	76
Going out to eat used to be a regular occurrence for me, but now it's a luxury	57	60	61	56	44	53	61
I will out as often, but now it is usually at a lower priced restaurant	36	48	30	29	34	39	32
I will cut spending in other places in order to still be able to dine out	29	36	32	25	21	29	29

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between March 12 to 19, 2012 among 2,451 adults (aged 18 and over), of whom 2,172 own a vehicle. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not t hey use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.

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The Harris Poll^? #43, May 16, 2012
By Regina A. Corso, SVP, Harris Poll, Public Relations and Youth Research, Harris Interactive

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom and syndicated market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll? and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers proprietary s olutions in the areas of market and customer insight, corporate brand and reputation strategy, and marketing, advertising, public relations and communications research. Harris possesses expertise in a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Additionally, Harris has a portfolio of syndicated offerings that complement our custom solutions while maximizing our client's research investment.? Serving clients in more than 215 countries and territories through our North American and European offices and a network of global partners, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

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SOURCE Harris Interactive

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