Canadian families visit restaurants without kids: report

July 8, 2014, Toronto — Restaurant visits by families with kids declined by three per cent while adult-only
traffic was flat last year, reports the NPD Group.

July 7, 2014, Toronto — Restaurant visits by families with kids declined by three per cent while adult-only
traffic was flat last year, reports the NPD Group.

Families with kids, or what is
called “parties with kids” in industry vernacular, made 51.4 million
fewer visits to Canadian  restaurants
in the year ending February 2014 compared to a year ago, according to
NPD’s foodservice market research.

Restaurant
visits by families with kids dropped across all meal periods, with
morning and afternoon snack times at quick-service restaurants hit
especially hard, finds NPD’s
CREST
service, which on a daily basis tracks all aspects of how consumers use
Canadian foodservice outlets. Of all restaurant segments, families with
kids visited quick service restaurants less often than other segments.
Visits by families with kids to quick-service restaurants declined by
23.6 million in the year ending February 2014. 

“In order to bring back families with kids to the restaurant table,
operators and manufacturers need to understand what influences and
motivates them to visit,” said Robert Carter, executive director of Canada
Foodservice at The NPD Group, in a news release. “They need to keep
in mind that kids are also an important audience since they have
considerable influence on restaurant selections.”  

Restaurant and other commercial foodservice visits were down by more
than 72 million visits overall in the year ending February 2014 compared
to year ago. Family dining (midscale) restaurants held up best in the
period with a two per cent increase in traffic.
Visits to quick-service and casual dining restaurants dropped by 1 per
cent compared to year ago, reports NPD.

“There
is currently sluggish restaurant demand, which means operators will
battle for market share. Getting families with kids to visit
restaurants again is certainly one of the ways in
which they can grow revenue and increase share,” said Carter. “To get
them back, operators and manufacturers need to understand what’s
preventing them from visiting and work toward removing those barriers.”