Restaurant Spending Now Outpacing Grocery Store Spending

Recently I came across some interesting data from the American Enterprise Institute on the food spending habits of Americans. For the first time since statistics were tracked, the amount of money that Americans are spending at restaurants outpaced the amount being spent in grocery stores for the first time this January.

(Click to Enlarge)

Naturally, since this comes from the American Enterprise Institute from a professor of economics, the primary issue that is addressed in the publication (and several others that note the milestone) is of the economic nature, in that the improving economy has lead to increased discretionary spending, and thus increased restaurant wages (the last part being a very recent trend). It's interesting that the social and personal aspect of this has more or less been ignored, particularly as to why this has just happened, instead of before the most recent recession (though trends from then also indicated that this would be happening).

I think that part of the increase in restaurant spending has been the increase in casual dining, eating out is no longer the extremes of a special occasion or traditional fast food. Casual dining has also made restaurants a place to meet, instead of an afterthought. All this results in dining out to be a more normal social occurrence than in previous generations.

Another interesting point if increased dining out is the changes in our work habits. More individuals are working longer hours. There is less time in the day for other things, and for some cooking has become an afterthought, replaced by the convenience of eating out and thus spending less time cooking (and by extension, grocery shopping).

However, I feel that the primary reason for this has been the lack of desire and the lack to cooking ability. It seems that in our digital world, children these days are spending more time in the digital realm and away from the tactile world. They do less of things that people did before, like going outside or spending time around the house. It's just much easier and convenient to spend time on the internet or watch a TV show or play video games than it is to learn how to cook or change motor oil. Thus as these individuals grow up, they don't learn the skills needed to cook for themselves full-time, and when they do cook it is a very repetitive simple cuisine that gets old really fast (or possibly trying to follow a way-too complex recipe leading to disaster). This then reduces the desire to cook, and cooking is then substituted with dining out to eat well (or at least well enough). I think it's unfortunate that many people today are not very proficient in cooking, as cooking does help keep living costs down (at the expense of time).