Skip navigation
NPD: More consumers choosing to dine in

NPD: More consumers choosing to dine in

Dine-in restaurant visits rise 5 percent, consumer research firm says

Limited-service restaurants that remodeled their interiors to create a more pleasant dining experience seem to have the right idea, as a growing number of customers are choosing to dine in.

Dine-in visits at quick-service restaurants grew 5 percent in the year ended in December 2014, according to The NPD Group, making it the fastest-growing dining occasion in any restaurant segment.

Restaurant customers generally spend more money when dining on-premise than off-premise, according to NPD. That might help explain the continued rise in same-store sales across the industry, despite stagnant traffic.

NPD said on-premise restaurant visits overall have risen for three consecutive years, and increased 2 percent last year.

That trend seems to be slowing, though. For the year ended in May 2015, dine-in visits rose 1 percent, while off-premise visits were flat.

That growth was mostly driven by visits to limited-service restaurants, which account for 78 percent of all industry traffic, NPD said. Casual-dining on-premise visits held steady over the course of the year, while overall visits declined.

Both dine-in and overall visits declined in the family-dining segment.

Consumers told NPD that the top benefits of dining in restaurants was that it made them feel good. They said dining out was a good way to “get out and meet someone,” was relaxing, was a way to spend time with family, and was fun and made them feel like they didn’t need to worry about anything.

“These reasons are in line with the ‘experiential purchasing’ trend — the idea that consumers want to do something, not just buy something — that marketers are seeing across consumer sectors,” NPD said in a press release.

“The message for restaurant operators is that on-premises consumers are happier and more profitable consumers,” NPD restaurant industry analyst Bonnie Riggs said in the release.

That has been the experience with a number of successful restaurant chains. Starbucks, which just passed Subway as the second highest-grossing chain in the U.S., has long focused on the guest experience in its restaurants, with amenities like Wi-Fi and free use of bathrooms.

Starbucks continues to innovate, most recently with plans for “Reserve Bars” serving specialty coffee at 500 locations and a partnership with music service Spotify to allow customers to help influence the music played in restaurants.

Arby’s, which has posted impressive growth in recent quarters, is also in the process of remodeling its interiors with an upgraded design, Wi-Fi and charging stations.

Breakfast, brunch and lunch chain First Watch also recently introduced a new “Urban Farm” design prototype that includes free newspapers and Wi-Fi.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish