Black-Diner Demographics: Home Away From Home

For many black consumers, dining out is an extension of home.

By Scott Hume, Executive Managing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 3/1/2007

Black consumers skew above average in QSR patronage and soft-drink consumption, according to R&I’s New American Diner Study.

Foodservice may have no stronger connection with any other demographic than it does with black customers. R&I’s New American Diner Study finds that dining away from home is more deeply integral to these consumers’ lifestyles than it is to white, Asian or Hispanic Americans.

Diner frequency and loyalty are requisites for the industry’s vitality, and black consumers strongly display both. This is especially true for the quick-service (QSR) segment: One in five black consumers visits a QSR more than once a week, compared with 13.4% of the total sample.

At all meals, black consumers are more inclined to use drive-thru windows, takeout or delivery: 22.8% say they are more likely to use those options rather than eat in a restaurant, nearly double the 11.8% of the total sample that does so.

The New American Diner Study also finds attitudinal differences that may help explain black consumers’ restaurant-usage patterns. Restaurants appear to be more an extension of rather than an alternative to home cooking for many African Americans, who more strongly agree that it often is easier to eat out than to cook at home. They also have the highest percent agreeing that they dine out because they like the taste of restaurant food better than home-cooked.

And when dining out, blacks do so less often to sample new culinary experiences: 48.1% always or often order food other than what they eat at home, while 59.5% of the total sample seeks new foods.