Thinking more about this, eating out seems more common and routine now than it used to be.
Once upon a time, I think, going to a restaurant was more of a treat, not something you did every day or even many times a week. Because it was . . . well, maybe I didn’t have much money growing up compared to some, but we ate at home almost all the time. Going to White Castle for hamburgers was, not a big splurge, but a bit of a splurge. Even for lunch during the workday, it was common to “brown bag” it, unless you were a businessman type.
Over time, convenience became important, cooking at home was done less, the word “foodie” happened, and it became normal to eat out frequently, casually, and routinely. The guy with a sandwich in a brown bag became a bit weird, everyone else went off to lunch.
Whole new kinds of restaurants emerged, not just fast food but also fast casual and quickserve. The number of restaurants swelled, just like the number of retail stores generally. America shopped until we dropped, and ate out similarly.
Staying in for dinner didn’t necessarily mean cooking, with the growth of takeout and delivery. Now dinner is as likely to be served by DoorDash as by mom or dad or spouse or you.
This isn’t just old person “back in my day” b.s. - here, you can check out the data as of 2018
https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/publications/90228/eib-196_ch3.pdf?v=23248
In fact, the whole ERS report is pretty informative - they are more coming at it from the nutrition angle but it is a lot of data anyhow
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=90227
Of course, two years after that report, there was Covid which changed so much about the economy and society, and eating was no exception. All of a sudden, there was no eating out, people rediscovered the grocery store, everyone was baking bread and cooking as they WFH - or DoorDashing and UberEating, as restaurants turned to ghost kitchens and pizza stocks soared.
Then post-Covid, everyone went nuts to eat out again. The demand to dine out was, for a couple years, bigger than ever. Of course not all the restaurants survived Covid, so supply was less than demand and that means raise prices! Meanwhile, food suppliers and landlords and restaurant service and equipment companies had been raising their prices as hard as possible, just like every other industry - whether they had to or not, because it really was a pricing power bonanza for just about every industry. Labor shortage, higher minimum wage laws, restaurants felt all those cost pressures just like other industries.
Do a search for more recent trends and you’ll see dozens of links about how Americsns in 2024 and 2025 are turning away from eating out and back to eating at home, for economic reasons among others.
“Dining out is costly” . . .
again . . . this isn’t new, it’s just been a moment.