We don’t know if restaurants are getting better or consumers are getting lazier, but more customers than ever before are choosing to dine in rather than take out. This post from Nation’s Restaurant News explains the trend towards dining in and what it means for the restaurant industry as a whole. Diners enjoy the social aspect that eating out provides, whether it’s the ability to meet new people while dining at a restaurant, or spending quality time with friends or family over a meal out. This tendency towards an experience versus a product is more widespread than just the restaurant industry; consumers are showing greater preferential treatment towards a unique or fulfilling experience than they are towards just buying what someone is selling. There’s also a greater ease in letting a restaurant take care of all the work, from food preparation and actual cooking to post-meal cleanup. Even if consumers opt for takeout, they would still have to worry about recycling the to-go containers or doing the dishes later, whereas eating out is a completely worry-free experience. It’s good news for the restaurant industry, too, because diners tend to spend more when they eat in than when they take their food to-go. Sounds like a win-win situation to us.

Read the full article here: NPD: More Consumers Choosing to Dine In