Much of the industry is hell-bent on finding new ways to cater to takeout customers. Demand for drive-thrus is through the roof. Technology companies that work with restaurants on delivery or to-go are getting remarkable valuations and operators are falling all over themselves to add these new ideas.
But the future isn’t all takeout. According to a survey of consumers in the National Restaurant Association’s latest State of the Industry report, 51% of customers are not eating inside restaurants as much as they’d like. By comparison, 37% said they’re not getting takeout or delivery as much as they’d want.
The on-premises dining demand remains higher than it was before the pandemic, Hudson Riehle, SVP of the research and knowledge group with the association, said on an upcoming episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive.”
“It’s a major mistake for anyone to assume that table service is going to end up withering on the vine,” Riehle said. “That is not true. Socialization is just waiting to be released.”
“Pent-up demand” does not automatically mean consumers will rush out to spend once they’re able. What’s more, a certain percentage of consumers usually indicates that they don’t eat out as much as they’d like, even when the economy is going well.
But the survey provides some insight into the mind of the consumer. It shows that customers are far more likely to say they don’t eat in restaurants as much as they’d like than they are to report not getting enough takeout.
That makes sense in the current environment given the dramatic shift in sales from dine-in to takeout, a shift widely expected to have at least some permanence in the post-pandemic environment.
Yet if consumers say they’re not eating out at restaurants as much as they’d like, it suggests some hope for casual dining and other full-service restaurants once people feel free to venture out of their houses more often.
There is a gap in all income groups and with all ages. But it’s worth pointing out, perhaps unsurprisingly, that older consumers were far more likely to miss the in-restaurant experience than younger consumers.
For instance, 59% of Baby Boomers (58 and older) and 55% of Gen X consumers (42-57) said they don’t eat in restaurants as much as they’d like. By contrast, 41% of Millennials (26-41) and 42% of Gen Z adults (18-25) didn’t eat in restaurants enough.
That said, older consumers also missed takeout more—41% of Boomers and 45% of Gen Xers don’t get takeout as much as they’d like, compared to 26% of Millennials and 38% of Gen Zers. (Conclusion: Older adults just have a lot more pent-up demand, period.)
And in general, younger adults are embracing more technology when they do dine out. For instance, 52% of Gen Z adults prefer ordering and paying on a tablet or an app when dining in. By comparison, 83% of Boomers prefer an old-fashioned waitstaff.
In both cases, Riehle noted, consumers are eating out. Just how they’re eating out is different. “It doesn’t mean that what people remember as the traditional table service environment is going to go away,” he said. “It just means that coming out of this era of rapid growth are going to be different operational and business models.”