Americans are now devoting more of their budget to dining out and carry-out than to grocery shopping. Data from the commercial real estate services and investment firm, CBRE, shows nearly a quarter of every retail dollar spent in the U.S. last year fell within the food and beverage segment. Food and beverage retail account for $1.5 trillion of all U.S. retail sales, CBRE said in its 2019 U.S. Food In Demand Series: Consumers Report. And the share of those food and beverage dollars spent at restaurants now outpaces the dollars spent at grocery stores.
WWL-TV's Chef Kevin Belton says it's the fast-casual restaurant segment that's driving the trend. "They're not fast food, but they're fast service, where you just go in, or you can go on your mobile app, put in your order, run in, pick it up and take it with you to go home."
The fast-casual restaurant industry seems to have found a recipe that's filling the needs of the nation.
"The restaurant has to be affordable for families to go to often, because folks don't have time to cook at home, or they just don't feel like cooking. So, what's the next option? Let's go to a family-friendly restaurant."
Chef Belton says those restaurants have also found favor with millenials, in particular, and it's good business.
"The inventory is fairly small, so they don't have this big box store where they have to pay a lot of rent. So, their prices are good, they make it affordable, and it's good food done quickly."
But, he says trends that happen everywhere else get to New Orleans slowly, and we may be the last to really get on board. He says we're likely not ready, yet, to give up makin' groceries and having dinner with "ya mom 'n 'em."
"I think we're always going to have going over to grandma's house," says Belton. "What makes us so different than anywhere else in the country is, we still take the time to gather as families at the table."
"Everybody comes to someone's house, so there's always going to be somebody in the family that cooks. If nobody else does, we'll always have one person in the family for those family gatherings." And, he says nothing can replace those get-togethers.
"My belief is...it doesn't matter if you get it prepared at the grocery store, if you cook it at home...the most important thing is sitting down together with family and friends at that table, just visiting."
