Take-Out from Restaurants Is Essential

During a week's time, Americans eat out an average of five times a week, according to a pre-coronavirus study by the USDA's Economic Research Service. These "food-away-from-home" acquisitions, as the ERS calls them, include everything from meals at restaurants, to milk shakes from ice cream shops, tacos from food trucks, pizza deliveries, and school lunches. This means nearly one-fourth of our 21 meals a week are acquired from restaurants or other places away from home.

The coronavirus is putting a serious dent in those dining habits. No longer can we dine in a restaurant, so take-out has become the only option. Fortunately, states that have ordered non-essential businesses to close have also deemed take-out to be essential. For most of us, it is.

Weekly frequency of food-away-from-home acquisitions by age
Total adults: 4.72
Under age 25:  5.01
Aged 25 to 34: 5.31
Aged 35 to 44: 5.45
Aged 45 to 54: 5.05
Aged 55 to 64: 4.96
Aged 65 to 74: 4.28
Aged 75-plus:  3.44

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, America's Eating Habits: Food Away from Home

U.S. Is Biggest Net Importer of Cuisines

American culture may dominate movies and music around the world, but it does not dominate restaurant cuisines, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study.

University of Minnesota economist Joe Waldfogel uses TripAdvisor data on 148 restaurant cuisines and Euromonitor data on restaurant expenditures in at least the top 60 cities of 52 countries. After analyzing this voluminous data, Waldfogel's principal finding is that the U.S. is the world's largest net importer of cuisines, with a deficit of $130 billion in 2017, excluding fast food. When fast food is included, the deficit falls to $55 billion, but the U.S. remains the biggest net importer of cuisines. Italy and Japan are the largest net exporters of their cuisines, followed by Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, and France.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Dining Out as Cultural Trade, NBER Working Paper 26020 ($5)

Dinner at Restaurants by Age

Most of us eat dinner at a restaurant at least once a week, according to a Gallup survey. When Americans are asked how many nights in the past week they had eaten dinner at a restaurant of any kind, the 61 percent majority said they had done so at least once, a percentage that has been stable for nearly a decade. Not surprisingly, age is an important factor in the frequency of dining out...

Percent who ate dinner at a restaurant in past week
Aged 18-to-34: 72%
Aged 35 to 54: 65%
Aged 50-plus: 50%

The stability in eating out is good news for restaurants, says Gallup, especially as fresh meal delivery services and food bars at grocery stores become increasingly popular. The fact that young adults are the most frequent customers is also good news, Gallup concludes.

Source: Gallup, Americans' Dining-Out Frequency Little Changed from 2008