Traffic Trends: What’s for Dinner?

In the evening, a quick-service meal often means pizza.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 12/1/2007

Quick-service dinner trends tend to mirror pizza-segment trends. National pizza chains receive 17.4 percent of all past-month purchase occasions, a 21-quarter average shows, but they garner fully 29.1 percent of past-month dinner occasions, according to the quarterly Quick-Track survey by Sandelman & Associates, a San Clemente, Calif.-based research firm.

• 38.1 percent of fast-food users who had dinner on their last occasion had pizza; 23.8 percent of all users did. 19.3 percent of those having dinner on their last visit ordered a burger.
• Dinner comprises 41.0 percent of all fast-food occasions, according to a 21-quarter average; lunch receives only a slightly greater share: 42.3 percent. Breakfast makes up 11.0 percent of QSR occasions; snacks, 5.6 percent.
• Of customers eating dinner on their most recent occasion, 36.3 percent used carryout; 24.7 percent used the drive-thru; 20.8 percent ate in the restaurant; and 18.3 percent had their meal delivered. Of all users’ last QSR occasions, 31.8 percent were carryout; 30.0 percent, drive-thru; 27.5 percent, eat-in; and 10.7 percent, delivery.
• A 21-quarter average shows that fast-food customers having dinner on their last occasion paid more per person than the all-occasion average: $5.21 vs. $5.00.
• 26.8 percent of those having dinner used a special deal or promotion; 20.2 percent of all QSR users did.
• 26.3 percent of users who had dinner on their last QSR occasion did so on a Friday. 21.8 percent of all users’ most recent occasions were on Friday.
• According to a 21-quarter average, 40.0 percent of respondents whose most recent QSR meal was dinner were with their spouse, and 35.1 percent came with their children. Of all fast-food users, 29.6 percent were with their spouse on their last occasion, and 27.1 percent were with their kids.

Methodology Customer trend data is based on the quarterly Quick-Track survey by Sandelman & Associates, a San Clemente, Calif.-based research firm. Quick-Track queries a nationally representative sample of 600 fast-food customers on a host of demographic and usage questions. The firm defines "QSR burger users" as those who have purchased a burger from a quick-service restaurant at least twice in the past month. Most-recent purchase data is based on all QSR users who purchased a burger on their last QSR occasion.