Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
I remember reading here or somewhere else sometime since the "great recession" that it used to be people in the U.S. rarely if ever ate out unless they were on the higher echelons of the economic strata. Then came the chain restaurants that made dining out (relatively more) "affordable" for those on the lower end. The great recession wiped out a lot of these chains when people went back to home cooking to save/cut down debt. One wonders if the same (great wipeout) will happen again. I don't/have ever patronised these places so don't know if they've disappeared or not.
Before the COVID shutdown, my wife and I rarely (5x a year at most) ever ate out (including fast food, not due to not having money, but finding very poor value where we are than what we were used to). We've been tracking our budget and expenditures on everything spent for over half a decade. Food (basics, we pretty much make everything from basics) expenditure is USD 16 per day on which we (2 of us) eat very, very well.
Depending on the locale, a hamburger and a glass of Bordeaux (Cru Simple) can easily run $25 with tax and tip at a fast casual restaurant, perhaps 40 at a "fine dining" restaurant (presuming they would even serve a hamburger).
The same meal costs at most $5 at home, of which $3 is for the one-sixth bottle of Bordeaux. The other two bucks pay for the ingredients to the hamburger.
This multiplier (5x) seems to be the norm at restaurants versus dining at home. That adds up quickly, meal after meal.
When I was a kid, we were financially sound (my Mom even had some help) and lived near a large city, but we RARELY ate out. Neither my parents alone or with another couple, nor as a family. Only when on vacations or on rare special occasions did we go out to eat. This was in the 1970s. There were weekly dinner/ bridge parties with neighbors/ colleagues, but eating at a restaurant was once per quarter at most. The restaurants were accordingly more rarefied -- liveried staff, formal service, etc. Sometime in the late 1980s the whole US disposition toward eating out changed, and it became MUCH more commonplace. Even today, my 90-something parents treat going out to eat as unusual.