Last night, my friends and I went for a dinner special at a local restaurant. For $24.95, they offered an entree for two (that could have fed four) and two glasses of Sangria. On our way to the restaurant, I noticed another restaurant offering a 2-4-1 entree deal on weeknights. Earlier in the day, I noticed that The Good Fork, a favorite of mine, was offering $14 comfort food entrees during the week.
So, I wondered, how badly are these restaurants doing? Are people eating out drastically less? Eater reported that three restaurants in the popular B.R. Guest chain have just shuttered, including one in Chicago, so it's not just a New York thing, some sort of trickle down from out-of-work Wall streeters. I took to the blogs to see what people had to say about their dining out habits.
There was a lot of conversation about cutbacks in meals outside of the home. It seems that many people out there are cutting back on all sorts of expenditures, and dining out is just one of the first to go. Additionally, Suze Orman was on Oprah last week, and she issued a money challenge, one of the terms of which was to not eat out for a month. This generated substantial buzz.
Many bloggers noted that they had made a New Years Resolution to eat out less either to save money, or lose weight. So if they're not eating out this year, surely they're eating in? According to Yahoo! Finance 3 month charts, Kroger, Safeway and Winn-Dixie have all had drop-offs in earnings since the beginning of the year, that took them below their levels from before the holiday jumps. So are people just not eating? Watch out Jenny Craig!
Personally, I have been eating at less expensive restaurants, though not necessarily dining out less. At the grocery store, I will look for sale items, and then purchase ingredients to make large meals that I portion off and keep in the freezer for lunches and dinners. This makes my trips to the grocery store less frequent.
Are you dining out less? Buying less groceries?
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I'm eating out more, since I just got a job contract working full time, but I plan to go back to cooking, not as much as before, but it saves a lot of money.
I live in the West Village and have watched the attitude transition from "Money, what's that?" to " How much?!?!"
Formerly pretentious Village restaurants with decor and high prices but no cuisine to match, have come to their (empty restaurant) senses, installing happy hours and 10 buck "Stella and a burger" type promotions, appetizer prices back to hovering around five dollars at the Irish pub down from 12 (!)
I dine out carefully, check out new places at lunch, have a few favorites which tend to be bargains.
My advice, shop in Chinatown, any one of them and buy what's fresh and cheap. You'll save a fortune, even if you try a "food experiment" by trying something new, like canned lichees as a starter for the uninitiated.
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