What's Happening in Restaurants These Days

Do you spend more of your food dollars in restaurants than in grocery stores?  That's the American trend, and the reason why you should keep up with what's happening in restaurants these days.  To help you keep pace, let's talk about calorie counts on menus, McDonald’s new all-day breakfast policy, and the widespread restaurant shortage of cooks, a growing problem.

Where do our food dollars go?

According to US Census Bureau statistics (2014), for the first time, consumer spending at restaurants ($50.4 billion) surpassed spending in grocery stores ($50.2 billion).  Why? Lower gas prices have encouraged folks to eat out more., and purchasing food in warehouse and "club" stores has cut grocery bills. 

One-third of respondents to a  National Restaurant Association survey said  they are eating out more than they did a year ago.  This trend can't be good for nutrition since diners out consume more calories, salt, and sugar than those eating at home.  On the other hand, eating out is good for restaurant business and a good thing for those who enjoy frequent breaks from cooking and doing dishes.  Dining out is also good for sociability since diners out often make plans with friends when they want to eat out.  Some people find it lonely to eat alone in a restaurant.

Where are those calorie counts?

The Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter reports that Americans consume close to one-third of their calories from restaurants and take-out meals.  If you're eating out regularly, you may be waiting and watching for more calorie counts on menus (or you may abhor all that bad news).  Well, no matter how you feel about them, more of such information will be forthcoming but not until December 1, 2016.  The rules, enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act  and originally scheduled to go into effect in 2015, have been postponed; the USDA has delayed implementation at the request of the restaurant industry.  But here's what you can expect when the stalling  ends:

Ÿ Calorie counts will be mandated at all chain restaurants with 20 or more outlets and at movie concessions, vending machine, amusement parks, and on prepared foods sold in supermarkets.  (Consumers are already getting used to  them because some restaurants have voluntarily provided some information and local ordinances also require some counts. )

Ÿ What about alcoholic beverages?   Those listed on restaurant menus (but not mixed drinks at a bar) will also have to disclose calories.

Where can I get breakfast all day long?

Customers and shareholders  have been clamoring for it for years, according to the Chicago Tribune. Finally, the  franchisee leadership voted to take this bold move:  Instead of discontinuing the serving of breakfast after 10:30 a.m., on October 6, McDonald's switched to an all-day breakfast policy.  It will make the kitchen more crowded, but the  company hopes it will also boost sales.

All-day breakfast items  at McDonald's will include the following: McMuffins, hotcakes, sausage burritos, fruit and yogurt parfaits, oatmeal, and hash brown potatoes.  Some stores in the South will sell biscuits instead of muffins.

In recent years, visits to McDonald's for breakfast have been growing, both for portable grab-and- go breakfast sandwiches and also for food that's not so portable, such as pancakes. 

The country's egg supply may be affected because all-day breakfast is being served at more than 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. Remember that the nation's egg supply has already been reduced by the avian influenza outbreak earlier this year. Greater demand for eggs may lead to increased prices for the eggs you purchase in the grocery store. 

When I'm home, I have no urge to rush out to McDonald's  for breakfast.  I can make my own hot cereal or scrambled eggs.  However, when I'm at an airport, McDonald's breakfast items (tasty and inexpensive) draw me toward the place any time of day.  If the latest news about the cancer risks of eating too much meat is giving you shivers, you, too, may choose a lunch or dinner of oatmeal and/or yogurt rather than a Big Mac.

Where have all the cooks gone?

Are you sitting in restaurants longer these days, stomach growling,  impatiently  waiting for your

order to arrive at your table?  It's not because the wait staff has shrunk; it's because there aren't enough cooks in the kitchen.  At one time, (says the Chicago Tribune) cooks were "in excess supply."  Now, the newspaper continues, a "slowdown in immigration over the past five years has also made it harder for kitchens to find staff partly because the industry is deeply reliant on immigrant labor.  But there's another factor at work here: unequal pay for cooks compared to servers (those folks we used to call "waiters" or "waitresses.") discourages people from becoming restaurant cooks. 

If you compare just their salaries, the pay seems fairly fair.  The median salary for cooks is about $10 an hour, for waiters $9 an hour.  BUT  tips tip the scales quite a bit in favor of the servers.  And the cooks know it and resent it.  Is there a solution?  Some restaurants have eliminated tipping altogether.  Evidently, these establishments charge customers  enough to enable them to pay staff decently for whatever job they do.  Other restaurants simply add a flat service charge to the bill, and split the take among  servers, cooks, and whoever else deserves this income boost.

In 2013, New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells wrote this: "The restaurant business can be seen as a class struggle between the groomed, pressed, articulate charmers working in  the dining room and the blistered, stained, and profane grunts in the kitchen."  Wow!  That's almost enough to make me want to avoid getting into the crossfire of this war and, instead, make an Egg McMuffin at home. But not quite.

Source(s):

Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, "Smart Strategies for Healthy Eating Out," September 2015.

Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter," "Newsbites: Chain-Restaurant Calorie Counts Delayed," September 2015.

Chicago Tribune, Business section, "After 10:30? Not a Problem" September 2, 2015.

Chicago Tribune, Business section, "McD's hopes to get sales growing with all-day breakfast" October 6, 2015. 

Chicago Tribune, Business section "Waiters' tips turn to rifts: Restaurants struggle to find cooks as pay disparities keep them away," August 25, 2015.