Americans aren’t eating out like they used to, and restaurants are feeling the pain. According to Bloomberg, U.S. restaurant sales “grew in the second quarter at their slowest pace since 2009,” partially because customers find it too expensive to eat out. Restaurants have had to raise menu prices to keep up with higher minimum wages and other cost factors, while grocery prices have dropped for the last 10 months straight.
“Aside from the 2008 recession, the last time the gap between the cost of eating at home and eating out was this wide was in 1981,” says Bloomberg.
Millennials, a group that previously ate out frequently, did so 20 percent less in 2015 than in 2006. Meal kits like Blue Apron, which make it easier to cook at home, are filling the gap to some degree. Their popularity is expected to grow tenfold by 2020, says Bloomberg, at which point the sector could bring in $10 billion in annual sales.
As more restaurants and fast-food chains face bankruptcy, experts predict that old standards like McDonald’s and Domino’s will survive the tumult, thanks to their highly franchised models and sheer size.