Monthly patronage is relatively stagnant among family-style and traditional casual-dining chains, in line with the ongoing top full-service chain sales slump. However, data from Technomic’s recently released “2016 Future of FSR: Family & Casual Dining Consumer Trend Report” shows the unexpected ways that full-service dining is growing traffic and sales. To start, the report shows that upscale casual-dining chains are actually pulling ahead for monthly patronage: more consumers now (36%) than in 2014 (31%) say they are visiting upscale casual-dining chains at least once a month.
The reason patronage has stagnated at family-style and traditional casual-dining chains is largely because consumers are not increasing their lunch or dinner dine-in frequency at these locations. This is likely due to the often-cited price concerns and lack of disposable income for these occasions. On the other hand, more consumers are visiting upscale casual-dining chains for lunch and dinner dine-in occasions now than they were two years ago. Consumers say they are visiting these concepts more often now than in 2014, thanks to a livelier dining ambiance; a better overall value offering; and higher quality food and beverage items.