Time has become the most valuable currency in the marketplace, trumping money as the epitome of success and the essence of a good value. Time has become the measure of worth in an era in which it is the scarcest resource. In other words, time is what matters most to the New American Diner.

James Robinson, an emeritus sociologist at the University of Maryland who has studied time usage for more than 40 years, reports that in his 1998 survey, for the first time ever, more people said they were pressed for time more than for money. The Yankelovich MONITOR finds the same pattern (see “Time Starvation” below). It is no surprise, then, that multitasking has become essential and that timesaving technologies are proliferating.

Restaurateurs have long appreciated that with dining, time matters. But nowadays time matters more than ever. So, increasingly, restaurants are competing more in a realm of minutes than of dining. This is a fast-growing trend that has two significant repercussions.

First, time now comes in two varieties, zero or slow, with nothing in between. People don't want to spend it with anything that is not perceived to be worthwhile. But for things that are worth it, people are willing to slow down and relax.

If something is not thought to be worth the time, then it had better take “none at all”; in a time-starved world, minutes spent on things that aren't worthwhile waste a scarce resource.

However, zero-time solutions won't support premium prices. If an experience is not worth the time, it's not worth the money either. The minutes or hours involved work only as a disincentive: More time drives people away. Airlines and supermarkets can't charge extra just because they provide self-serve kiosks. Typically, seating, ordering, serving and paying are zero-time activities at a restaurant, so for these things, efficiency matters and can make the experience more accessible to those with the least time to enjoy it.

On the other hand, if something is worth the time it takes, consumers will slow down to enjoy it, and thus pay more for it. Slow time is about experiences beyond products and services. Zero-time technologies and logistics are costs of entry. Restaurants no longer can be assured of commanding loyalty with only the traditional elements of good food and great service. Only slow-time experiences can do that. In making hours worth spending, restaurants will discover the other important consequence of a time-centered marketplace.

When time is what matters most, restaurants no longer compete only with other restaurants for patronage and share of wallet. Instead, restaurants compete with anything that offers a worthwhile way for people to spend their time.

Obviously, even the most over-scheduled people must eat, though not necessarily at restaurants. Many operations will find it smart to turn the tables on convenience. Serving food as an adjunct to other, more-compelling experiences may keep patrons from migrating to venues that offer such experiences and where adequate dining is available but secondary.

Witness the coffeehouse phenomenon of the past decade. Above all else, these are places to meet with friends or colleagues, read newspapers or books, listen to music, do work or schoolwork, hook up to a Wi-Fi connection or just hang out. Competitors are not just other coffee shops but every place where people can meet, read, listen, work, surf or hang.

Time is the force majeure for the future of dining. Not just speed and efficiency, but a whole new context of value, competition and demand.