It's Complicated: America's Relationship to Restaurants
2024 was a love/hate year
A recent Gallup survey speaks to the complicated relationship American’s have with restaurants right now.
On the one hand, we’re one of the top 3 most favorable industries in the country according to the poll.
On the other hand, the 9 point drop in positive sentiment from 2023 to 2024 is the largest of any industry in the survey. That is nearly a 15% drop in a single year. 52% is also the lowest positive rating since 2008. Additionally, the 16% negative sentiment is the highest it’s ever been.
The survey sites high and rising food prices as a likely cause for the drop in positivity toward the restaurant industry. The 20% drop in positivity for the grocery industry seems to support this. Though I don’t have the data to back it up, I’d be willing to bet that the increasing, and increasingly necessary, use of fees to make a restaurant work is also part of the negative blowback. I’d also be curious to know if the prevalence of tipping in places it hasn’t typically been customary somehow negatively impacts how restaurants are perceived.
While I thought the data provided in the survey was fascinating, I wasn’t surprised. Anecdotally, I can say that we encounter more frustration from guests than we have historically. Some of this is old fashioned ‘we, as the restaurant, could have done better.’ Other times it does feel like we’re on the receiving end of frustration that is maybe rooted elsewhere.