It’s A Myth That Millennials Are Abandoning Fast Food

Millennials, as a generation, are roughly defined as “anyone younger than the senior Consumerist staff.” They’ve been the subject of hand-wringing in the fast food industry as industry experts fret that the young people just aren’t interested in traditional fast food, instead preferring slightly classier quick-serve fare like Chipotle or Five Guys. Is this true? Maybe not.

BurgerBusiness analyzed some data from last year, which included surveys of younger Americans that asked how many times they had visited various restaurant types during the last year. While it’s true that visits to traditional fast-food establishments fell (people between ages 18 and 24) made an average of ten fewer visits to fast food restaurants than the previous year. They only made one more visit to fast casual chains, though. For younger diners, it’s not their visits to fast food restaurants that are decreasing: it’s their visits to restaurants at all price points.

Why is this? Well, young adults are broke. BurgerBusiness points out that fewer teens work summer jobs than in decades past. Fast food restaurants are losing their customers to, presumably, loaves of bread and jars of peanut butter, or snacks at home.

The Myth Of Millennials’ Fast-Casual Migration [BurgerBusiness]

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