Diner Demographics: Worth Courting

High-income restaurant consumers potentially are every operation’s best customers.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/1/2007

The typical QSR heavy user? He’s middle-aged and upper-income.

A teenage boy polishing off a McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese, large fries and a 42-ounce soft drink may be the stereotypical quick-service restaurant customer, but, in fact, McDonald’s Corp. Vice Chairman and CEO Jim Skinner is a more accurate QSR poster boy.

According to a 2007 study conducted by Barrington, Ill.-based Sandelman & Associates and published by Chicago-based Technomic Inc., the largest group of heavy users of both QSR and casual-dining restaurants are males ages 45 to 64 with a household income of $75,000 or higher. An assumption that the wealthiest consumers would be the fine-dining category’s best customers also proves true: R&I’s New American Diner Study finds that 21.8% of consumers (male and female) with a household income of $75,000 or more say they visit a fine-dining restaurant at least once a week, twice the average for all consumers.

New American Diner Study data also confirm that the rich aren’t snobs: They’re above-average QSR and casual-dining restaurant patrons as well. Nearly 40% of high-income consumers say they visit QSRs once a week or more; 22.5% use casual-dining restaurants that often.

How the wealthy use—and choose—restaurants also frequently differs from the norm. And because these upper-income diners are so important to foodservice operations at all price and service levels, the wealthy are worth knowing better. Here are a few more insights from the New American Diner Study:

• Self-image. The wealthiest consumers are the most likely of all income groups to say that the restaurants they choose reflect their personality, but the least likely to say those choices are indicative of their social status.
• Newness. One-third of well-to-do consumers say they love to try new restaurants and often do. And when they dine out, they look for new dishes to try. One-quarter of the wealthiest consumers agree with the description of themselves as "an adventurous diner," and affluent consumers are most likely to say that they order dinner entrées different from what they eat at home.
• Expectations. A desire for newness pervades the wealthiest consumers’ interaction with restaurants in aspects other than menus. Nearly 30% agree they are "willing to pay considerably more for a truly unique restaurant experience." And 25% of upper-income consumers say they would eat at restaurants more often if "the theme for the restaurant were truly unique and different."
• Breakfast. Well-heeled consumers are breakfast eaters: 46.3% say they frequently or occasionally order a morning meal at a restaurant, compared with 36.8% of all respondents. But the wealthy are more likely to eat in a restaurant or at work than they are to make a grab-and-go drive-thru stop.
• Lunch. Business-related lunches are one reason high-income consumers are above-average midday restaurant-goers. Nearly 13% of wealthy diners who dine out for lunch say that midday restaurant visits always or frequently are for business (versus 7% for all consumers).
• Dinner. Why do well-off consumers choose to dine out rather than at home? They are least likely among all income groups to say it is because of price and the most likely to say that it often is easier to go out rather than to cook.