Diner Demographics: Family Ways

Households with children watch budgets and can’t live without drive-thrus.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/1/2007

Households with children are slightly below-average-frequency restaurant users whose dining-out occasions often are the result of one of two dominant motivations: indulgence or convenience.

Because adults with children younger than 18 living at home don’t get out as often as others, they are more likely to consider a restaurant meal a "special occasion" event, according to R&I’s New American Diner (NAD) Study. These consumers agree more strongly with the statement, "I eat at restaurants to indulge myself," and disagree more strongly with the idea of a meal away from home as an "experience."

The pragmatism that families with children exhibit may be grounded in part in household economics: Consumers who have children are far more sensitive about price and value than are adults who don’t have children. Parents are less likely to agree with the proposition that, although dining out is more expensive than eating at home, it is worth the experience.

Do you take into account all aspects of the dining experience when you determine whether a restaurant is a good value? Whereas 45.1% of adults without children say they do, only 37.6% of consumers with children at home buy into the idea that value is about more than price. When adults with children are asked what one change restaurants could make to persuade them to dine out more often, their top answer is to provide better value. Offering more freedom to enjoy discounts or coupons ranks second.

It would be a mistake, however, to think that when parents dine out, they are more likely to seek quiet, intimate dinners. That more aptly describes adults without children. Far from longing to get away from the noise and action at home, adults with children are significantly less likely to say they avoid loud restaurants and more likely to say they enjoy restaurants with a lot of activity.

On the Go

The lure of convenience—the other important driver of restaurant use by households with children—means these consumers are above-average users of drive-thru windows, takeout counters and delivery services for all meals (see "Drive-Thru Families"). Families with children are more likely to define "convenience" as offering drive-thru service.

More than 62% of households with children say they purchase takeout/carryout meals from restaurants two or more times in an average month, compared with 49% of childless households. Six in 10 households with children keep carryout menus ready and waiting at home.

But when gasoline prices rise, households with children are more likely to cut back on restaurant meals or trade down to lower-priced brands than to simply patronize restaurants closer to home.