A new study conducted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has found that Australians are spending more and more money on takeaway food. Sit-down restaurants and cafes, meanwhile, have experienced a steady decline over the past four years.
Empty restaurant picture from Shutterstock
Researchers from CBA analysed consumer spending patterns in the areas of groceries, restaurants and fast food using internal CommBank transactional data from 2009-12, including credit card and debit MasterCard transactions. The bank also commissioned a national survey with Lonergan Research among 1,026 Australians aged 18 years and over.
The resultant CommBank Signals report discovered a sharp rise in takeaway buying habits at the expense of restaurant dining:
The average spend per month on fast food has increased by 23 per cent over four years…The average spend per month on restaurant dining has fallen by nine per cent over the past four years. This decline seems to reflect a more frugal consumer mindset post the global financial crisis.
According to the study, Australians spend an average of $70 per week on eating out at cafes, takeaway and restaurants, equating to a total of $60 billion per year. Grocery shopping, meanwhile, costs the average Australia around $139 per week.
Based on these results, the report speculates that eating out plays an increasingly large part in the weekly dining experience; particularly when it comes to affordable fast food options.
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Do you prefer to dine at restaurants or eat takeaway at home? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments
2 responses to “Do Australians Prefer Fast Food To Fine Dining?”
Personally I prefer like, the new kind of indie style cafe – places like the infamous “the moon” in Perth, where you can get some pretty damn decent hand made food for $10-15 bucks, and probably some entertainment of some kind too.
Fast food resteraunts exploit peoples laziness (everyone at times), and formal resteraunts are usually quite overpriced, and make way too much focus of just the food. Some people go out just because they are going out for a great meal cooked by someone else.. Most people go out to have a genuinely good experience. A person playing a classical instrument also does not classify as entertainment.
I prefer fine dining – problem is I refuse to pay Perth prices.