Diner Demographics: Caught in the Middle (Class)

The middle class is feeling squeezed, but it still finds time and dollars to dine out.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 3/15/2008

Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee last May, Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School, told senators that "America’s middle class is struggling, caught in a vise of stagnant incomes and rising costs and set upon by a largely unregulated credit industry. … The economic rules have changed, leaving millions of hard-working, play-by-the-rules families caught in a battle for economic survival."

And that was in May 2007, before the housing market’s collapse and the subsequent financial-markets crisis. The median U.S. household income was $48,201 in 2006, up 4% from 2005, but inflation-adjusted weekly earnings have not kept pace (rising only 0.9% in 2007), according to U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

That may help explain why the middle class (with household incomes of $35,000 to $74,999) purchases fewer meals away from home than do lower-middle-class ($20,000 to $34,999) or upper-middle-class ($75,000 to $99,999) households (see "How Often?"). Middle-class consumers are most likely to say that casual-dining restaurants are their primary dining-out choice, whereas lower-middle-class consumers gravitate to quick-service options and upper-middle-class households are more-frequent users of fine-dining restaurants (although casual dining is the primary segment for them as well).

R&I’s New American Diner Study finds these characteristics of middle-class diners:

Nearly half (47.9%) say gasoline prices have affected their dining choices, compared with 55.3% of lower-middle-class and 38.3% of upper-middle-class consumers. Among middle-class diners who say they have made adjustments, 63.3% say they pick restaurants closer to home, and 47% say they choose less-expensive restaurants.
Price range is the primary consideration when choosing a restaurant for 32% in the middle class—a response slightly less enthusiastic than that from lower-middle-class households (35.9%) but stronger than that from upper-middle-class consumers, 22.6% of whom weigh price first.
Middle-class consumers are more likely than lower-middle-class or upper-middle-class consumers to say that their restaurant choices reflect their social status.
About 47% of middle-class diners—versus 45.9% of upper-middle-class and 53.1% of lower-middle-class diners—say they won’t wait longer than 30 minutes to be seated at a restaurant.
Middle-class consumers are the most likely to say they often or always eat breakfast at home, but the 19.4% who say they often or always purchase breakfast is about on par with the average for all consumers.
Nearly one-third of middle-class consumers purchase lunch on weekdays, but members of this demographic feel especially time-pressed: Nearly 19% say they purchase lunch at a drive-thru window or pickup counter and take it back to work to eat. That’s higher than for lower-middle-class (14.1%) or upper-middle-class consumers (16.7%). Not surprisingly, middle-class diners are less inclined to see lunch as a social occasion.
The 16.2% of middle-class diners who always or often purchase dinner away from home on weekdays doubles to 32.4% on weekends. Both percentages are closer to lower-middle-class than to upper-middle-class responses.
Middle-class consumers’ social side shows in the evening; 34.7% say that their weekday dinner away from home always or often involves a group of friends or family. And 47% of middle-class consumers say they always or often order food that is different from what they would likely eat at home.