Many Americans have come to the conclusion that it is cheaper or at least no more expensive to eat out than stay at home and prepare a meal themselves.
Mark Chernesky, a multimedia coordinator in Atlanta, for example, told The Christian Science Monitor a recent meal he and his wife prepared at home cost about $30 to make and an hour of their time.
On another evening he went to a restaurant for hand stuffed ravioli with puttanesca sauce and has explained, "I'll get out of here for $17 plus tip."
Paul Howard, a manager-instructor at Café Laura, a restaurant run by college students at Penn State, is on the same page. "When I add my hourly rate, the time to cook at home, I can instead take my family out to dinner and it comes out pretty even," he said.
While not all see eating out as a less expensive alternative to making it themselves, there is no doubt that Messrs. Chernesky and Howard are part of a large group of American consumers.
According to surveys conducted for the National Restaurant Association (NRA), many Americans view restaurants as an extension of their own home. Over the next 10 years, it has been projected that more than half of the average amount spent by households on food will go to restaurants.
"Restaurants aren't winning on their sophistication of pricing, they're winning on their ability to deliver value," said Mark Bergen, a pricing specialist at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. "Simply put, restaurants are more efficient than you are."
Discussion Questions: Are consumers coming to the conclusion that it is in fact less expensive and more convenient to eat out than to prepare meals from food bought at grocery stores? What are grocery stores doing to deal with this competitive threat?