With increasing prices for gas, cable, and many other services like Netflix, many people are cutting costs across the board which means they won’t be going out and buying dinner from restaurants anytime soon. Restaurants are trying their very best to gain interest and foot traffic through their doors.

Key Takeaways:

• Instead, consumer spending on new services, like Netflix, could be taking up room in their budgets and leaving less for restaurants.
• Many costs have been rising in recent years. Apple released the iPhone in 2007, just before the recession, and helped unleash the smartphone craze.
• Gas prices likely helped boost restaurant sales last year, and it’s possible that one of the reasons for weak sales now is that consumers have adjusted their budgets.

“Instead, consumer spending on new services, like Netflix, could be taking up room in their budgets and leaving less for restaurants.”

http://www.nrn.com/consumer-trends/netflix-stealing-sales-restaurants