Diner Demographics: Lows and Highs

R&I research finds that low-income consumers are neither heavy QSR users nor unmindful of nutrition.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/15/2007

Last month’s widely publicized and discussed proposal by Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry that the city consider a moratorium on new quick-service restaurants in South Los Angeles because of the neighborhood’s high obesity rate underscores a misconception about low-income consumers.

Although research finds that when low-income households use restaurants, they are most likely to purchase meals from quick-service restaurants (QSRs), low-income consumers visit restaurants—of any kind—less often and spend fewer of their discretionary dollars on restaurant meals than do higher-income households. Many low-income neighborhoods such as South Los Angeles have disproportionately high numbers of QSR outlets but not relatively high numbers of restaurants in total because consumers in those areas cannot easily afford fast-casual, casual-dining or fine-dining meals.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, low-income adults get only 18% of their food from restaurants. That declines to 13% for school-age children in low-income households.

R&I’s New American Diner Study similarly finds that low-income ($20,000 or less) households—comprising individuals from the truly destitute to the working poor, part-time workers and entry-job workers—are infrequent restaurant users, but also confirms that QSRs most often are the destination when a restaurant meal is purchased.

Indulgence vs. Convenience

Overall, high-income ($75,000 or more) households are QSRs’ heaviest users (see table). Low-income consumers are more likely than those in other income groups to snack two or more times during the day, and when they get a snack, members of low-income households are slightly more likely to purchase it from a restaurant.

When low-income consumers use restaurants, they are least likely to enjoy a dine-in meal, often choosing to use carryout or drive-thru services instead. When they do dine in, low-income adults are most likely to do so alone, rather than as part of a large group.

Although nutrition education historically has lagged in poorer areas, lower-income respondents to the New American Diner Study do not express significantly less interest in nutrition. The percentages who say that they make an effort to eat healthful foods at restaurants and that nutrition considerations influence their meal choices do not significantly differ from the averages for all respondents.