NPD study: Telecommuting, online shopping, price hikes contribute to decline in foodservice lunch visits
All restaurant segments, with the exception of traditional quick-service restaurants (QSRs), are losing visits.
Foodservice lunch, which accounts for a third of all foodservice traffic, posted consecutively steeper declines over the past six months, reports The NPD Group, Chicago. In the quarter ending June 2016, lunch visits declined by 4% compared to same quarter a year ago, the steepest decline of all main meal dayparts, according to NPD’s ongoing foodservice market research. The rise in employees working at home combined with an increase in online shopping and recent menu price hikes are main contributors to the softening of lunch traffic.
All restaurant segments, with the exception of traditional quick-service restaurants (QSRs), are losing visits, finds NPD. This is particularly true of casual dining and fast-casual (a quick-service category) restaurants where traffic was down in the quarter ending June compared to same quarter last year by 6% and 9%, respectively. Weekday foodservice lunch visits declined by 7%.