Eating Out Like There's No Recession
Sometimes it is hard to figure out if the U.S economy is really in a recession. Take tonight, for instance.
Like every other Saturday, we headed out to the strip mall for dinner. Before we left home, we agreed to eat out at LongHorn Steakhouse and so we drove 10 miles to the nearest location.
The first surprise was that we couldn't find any parking. No problem. That is usually the case on Saturday nights when the majority of suburbians go out to eat. However, the shocker was when we arrived at the restaurant and found that there was a one hour plus wait!
You'd think that because the U.S. economy is in a recession, families would cut back drastically on Saturday night outings especially in mid to high priced restaurants.
And it's not like this is an isolated case. I remember going out to eat on a Monday in December last year and we found a 15 minute wait at our local Chevy's. It made me wonder if people eat out more during recessions.
Fortunately for us tonight, there was no wait at a nearby Applebee's restaurant despite the fact that it costs more to eat out at LongHorn Steakhouse.
However, it is worth noting that an Applebee's and LongHorn Steakhouse restaurant close to our home were shut down sometime in the middle of last year. This also came as a surprise to me because the restaurants were always full whenever we dined at these locations.
3 comments:
The increase could be people downscaling from the 50-100 a head restaurants,or other entertainment options. Are restaurants around your neighbourhood closing?
Other than the Applebee's and Longhorn closures, there have been a few new openings. On the other hand we've witnessed the closure of a few big box retailers like Bed, Bath & Beyond, in addition to the usual culprits - Linen n Things, Circuit City, etc etc
Maybe becauce...it's a lifestyle that is hard to be given up.
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