austin dining habits
Austin keeps lunch alive during nationwide sales decline
A new dining trend nationwide doesn't bode well for the already struggling restaurant industry: Fewer people are going out for lunch.
According to a report by financial services platform Square, weekday lunch sales in Austin dropped by 0.7 percent in the past five years; but that's not bad, compared to the rest of the cities in the study. In fact, the only city that beat it was Brooklyn, New York, at a 0.3 percent drop. Nashville, Tennessee, tied with Austin. Dallas had the third-worst drop in weekday lunch sales nationwide, at 7.3 percent, followed by Atlanta, Georgia (8 percent decrease) and Boston, Massachusetts (10.1 percent decrease).
Square's Spring Quarterly Restaurant Report examined the weekly transactions of restaurants and bars in 23 major U.S. cities between 2019 and 2023.
It might be easy to blame the drop in lunch to factors like the rising cost of living. But it might have to do with where folks are spending their time after the increase in remote work during the pandemic. (Perhaps Austin hasn't seen much change thanks to its more longterm acceptance of working from home.) Square Research spokesperson Ara Kharazian says it's more about a shift to the weekends.
"There’s a perception that consumers are cutting back at restaurants, when in fact total spending has increased," Kharazian said. "Before COVID, consumers were going out more during the week to eat lunch by their office and grab drinks after work. Now with remote work, restaurant spending has shifted to the weekend and we now see that weekend traffic is at its peak."
There's also been a slight uptick in Austin restaurants' happy hour traffic over the last few years. Transactions made on weekdays from 4-6 pm increased 0.2 percent from 2019 to 2023, the report found. Moreover, the highest positive change occurred on weekends, with Austin restaurant transactions jumping 3.1 percent during the same time period.
Restaurant and bar sales during happy hour and on weekends are also trending upwards nationally, with weekday transactions from 4-6 pm rising 0.3 percent overall, and weekend sales up 4.2 percent.
"Although many office workers continue to prefer remote and hybrid-work schedules, Square data revealed that end-of-day happy hour remains a priority," the report said. "Based on restaurant and bar traffic between 4-6 pm, happy hour has remained resilient and is slightly above pre-pandemic levels when comparing 2019 to 2023."
The full report can be found on squareup.com.
