7 ms·

The article mentions that 80% of all restaurant items will be eaten at home by 2030. This further cultural entrenchment of people into homebodies is really sad

The article mentions that 80% of all restaurant items will be eaten at home by 2030. This further cultural entrenchment of people into homebodies is really sad to me. Really hope this does not happen. I am assuming of course that the implication is that in-restaurant dining demand will shift to delivery, not that delivery will see some massive explosion over and above current restaurant food demand.

MattGaiser 3y ago
At least for my family, especially as delivery packaging has improved, restaurants have become an inferior experience unless they are fairly high end. Grandparents used to take everyone out to dinner regularly. Now we eat at their house. They have more comfortable chairs at home. The environment is much quieter. You don’t have to wait for refills. They personally have better cutlery. We aren’t really the types to like being waited on. So unless we explicitly want something social from the restaurant or we need a table as we are travelling, the reasons for actually going in one have disappeared.
- oceanplexian 3y ago
  The packaging might be better but it doesn’t solve the problem that the food arrives cold. Especially since the drivers pick up multiple deliveries and it can be 30-40 minutes before you get your food.
  - chipsrafferty 3y ago
    I've never had food arrive cold.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Above all, the probability of a restaurant being able to provide a meal with sufficient quality is too low. If my family gets together, we can bang out a multiple course guaranteed high quality meal in one hour, having fun while we do it. But a lot of that is due to cooking knowledge that the elders in the family pass down and refine over many, many decades.
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    That works if you have a family and enjoy cooking. For me neither applies. And I'm sure restaurant chefs get some kind of training to replace the passed down knowledge :)
    - toyg 3y ago
      It also works for very narrow sets of dishes. Nobody is an expert in every type of food in the world. Parent poster was just humblebragging.
Spivak 3y ago
> This further cultural entrenchment of people into homebodies is really sad to me. This is an odd take because the trend in new/remodeled homes is dedicating practically the entire first floor and back yard of every home as an entertaining space. The line between "at home" and "out" is getting to be very thin. Going over to a different friend's house 4-5 times a week for dinner, games, movies, music, sporting events, swimming, spa, fire pit feels to me pretty darn out.
oceanplexian 3y ago
Not sure I’d put a lot of stock in that. My behavior has completely changed, why would I pay DoorDash or Uber Eats $30 to deliver some fast food when I can go to a real restaurant and get much better food for cheaper? Delivery made sense when it was artificially subsidized by VCs, now that they’ve all jacked prices it’s not competitive at all.
- Aaargh20318 3y ago
  > why would I pay DoorDash or Uber Eats $30 to deliver some fast food when I can go to a real restaurant and get much better food for cheaper? Because you can eat it in the comfort of your own home, instead of the discomfort of an unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers. It may just be me but I really do not like eating in public.
  - stickfigure 3y ago
    It's absolutely incredible how much you can learn about cooking from youtube. My family rarely goes out to restaurants anymore, not because we don't love restaurants, but because it's more fun to cook at home.
    - hilux 3y ago
      You are so lucky to have a family who cook together!
    - bluGill 3y ago
      You quickly realize that most restaurants serve terrible food and so it isn't worth eating out at all.
      - tayo42 3y ago
        I pretty much only go out now for stuff I can't make my self, or as a social thing. Most restaurant food needs to be simple and easy so they can get you in and out quick.
    - 3y ago
Kaytaro 3y ago
I’d bet tipping inflation has a lot to do with that. Delivery can often times come out cheaper with the apps suggested tip than dining in with 20-25% being expected.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Could be. Here in Spain dining out is the norm and 0% tip is expected (though some is highly welcomed of course)
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  While I agree that the suggested tip percentages are getting out of hand, I personally refuse to follow those and I would be surprised if most people did. I tip the same as I ever did: 10% (or less) for bad service, 15% for decent but unremarkable service, 20% (or more) for good service. There's absolutely no reason to increase the percentages one tips just because the people writing the POS software are putting in crazy values.
  - WD40forRust42 3y ago
    [dead]
- ponector 3y ago
  You can tip any amount. You chose if tipping inflation would affect you. US tipping is sick, and it is not fair to people who are involved in preparing your experience. Why only servers receiving tip? Why not the cook? Or cleaning lady? After all, dirty toilet will ruin your dining experience.
  - 93po 3y ago
    some places do share tips across the whole staff, though sometimes waiters still get a larger cut
hooverd 3y ago
Well, restaurants, even on the high end, are increasingly getting louder and less comfortable. I thought that I was just getting older, but it's a real thing [0]. My favorite bars are the ones that are comfortable and don't blast your ears off with music. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-r... [0]
hilux 3y ago
The general trend is that people use money to buy "privacy," i.e. the freedom to not have to interact with "strangers." It's a glaring example of local optimization at the cost of global (your own life, viewed in its entirety) worsening.
xhrpost 3y ago
Yea it seems like western culture is obsessed with advancing hyper individualism. I can't judge, I'm a product of the culture myself, but our mental health seems to keep getting worse the more we keep our lives inside our own bubbles and move away from any aspect of community.
- rayiner 3y ago
  Coming from an eastern culture, I’m happy to judge. Luckily it’s a self-correcting problem. Hyper individualism makes having children both burdensome (lack of community support) and socially undesirable, and so these cultures are being replaced by less individualistic ones.
  - toyg 3y ago
    Except such cultures inevitably morph back into individualistic ones, typically once educational attainments and female emancipation kick in. It's not about culture, it's about economic conditions.
    - telotortium 3y ago
      I think this remains to be seen. It's possible that certain less individualistic cultures exposed to individualistic modernity will adapt in a robust way.
      - toyg 3y ago
        Jewish culture, Italian culture, Greek culture, Spanish culture - all famed for big families, worshipping fertility, etc etc. They all fell to the demands of advanced-capitalism demands. A couple of generations and that becomes true of any culture: once women are free to decide their own destiny, and educated enough to know there is a world of life options, they want to dedicate less of their time to child-rearing.
    - rayiner 3y ago
      It’s about culture, not economic conditions. A number of American sub-cultures that are more educated and wealthy than average (Mormons, Muslims) also have above-replacement fertility rates.
rsynnott 3y ago
That does sound like unreasonable extrapolation; I'd be very suspicious of _any_ prediction that _anyone_ makes about consumer behaviour in 2030, because the track record for attempting to make long-term predictions about consumer behaviour is... not great. At least in this country (Ireland) restaurants seem to be, if anything, fuller than they were before covid; deliveries are definitely more of a thing than they used to be, but no apparent evidence that people are giving up on going out.
93po 3y ago
My home is quiet, I can wear pajamas, it costs 20% less because I'm not tipping (I do tip a couple bucks for takeout), costs even less because I'm not buying drinks, alcohol isn't marked up 5x from retail pricing, and I can relax after my meal instead of spending 20 minutes trying to get my waiter's attention for the check and then having to drive home. The only reason I eat out is it's a date and we're in the early stages of getting to know each other, I want to treat someone (including dates) to something nice, or it's a special occasion.

MattGaiser 3y ago

At least for my family, especially as delivery packaging has improved, restaurants have become an inferior experience unless they are fairly high end. Grandparents used to take everyone out to dinner regularly. Now we eat at their house. They have more comfortable chairs at home. The environment is much quieter. You don’t have to wait for refills. They personally have better cutlery. We aren’t really the types to like being waited on. So unless we explicitly want something social from the restaurant or we need a table as we are travelling, the reasons for actually going in one have disappeared.

oceanplexian 3y ago
The packaging might be better but it doesn’t solve the problem that the food arrives cold. Especially since the drivers pick up multiple deliveries and it can be 30-40 minutes before you get your food.
- chipsrafferty 3y ago
  I've never had food arrive cold.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
Above all, the probability of a restaurant being able to provide a meal with sufficient quality is too low. If my family gets together, we can bang out a multiple course guaranteed high quality meal in one hour, having fun while we do it. But a lot of that is due to cooking knowledge that the elders in the family pass down and refine over many, many decades.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  That works if you have a family and enjoy cooking. For me neither applies. And I'm sure restaurant chefs get some kind of training to replace the passed down knowledge :)
  - toyg 3y ago
    It also works for very narrow sets of dishes. Nobody is an expert in every type of food in the world. Parent poster was just humblebragging.

Spivak 3y ago

> This further cultural entrenchment of people into homebodies is really sad to me. This is an odd take because the trend in new/remodeled homes is dedicating practically the entire first floor and back yard of every home as an entertaining space. The line between "at home" and "out" is getting to be very thin. Going over to a different friend's house 4-5 times a week for dinner, games, movies, music, sporting events, swimming, spa, fire pit feels to me pretty darn out.

oceanplexian 3y ago

Not sure I’d put a lot of stock in that. My behavior has completely changed, why would I pay DoorDash or Uber Eats $30 to deliver some fast food when I can go to a real restaurant and get much better food for cheaper? Delivery made sense when it was artificially subsidized by VCs, now that they’ve all jacked prices it’s not competitive at all.

Aaargh20318 3y ago
> why would I pay DoorDash or Uber Eats $30 to deliver some fast food when I can go to a real restaurant and get much better food for cheaper? Because you can eat it in the comfort of your own home, instead of the discomfort of an unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers. It may just be me but I really do not like eating in public.
- stickfigure 3y ago
  It's absolutely incredible how much you can learn about cooking from youtube. My family rarely goes out to restaurants anymore, not because we don't love restaurants, but because it's more fun to cook at home.
  - hilux 3y ago
    You are so lucky to have a family who cook together!
  - bluGill 3y ago
    You quickly realize that most restaurants serve terrible food and so it isn't worth eating out at all.
    - tayo42 3y ago
      I pretty much only go out now for stuff I can't make my self, or as a social thing. Most restaurant food needs to be simple and easy so they can get you in and out quick.
  - 3y ago

Kaytaro 3y ago

I’d bet tipping inflation has a lot to do with that. Delivery can often times come out cheaper with the apps suggested tip than dining in with 20-25% being expected.

wkat4242 3y ago
Could be. Here in Spain dining out is the norm and 0% tip is expected (though some is highly welcomed of course)
bigstrat2003 3y ago
While I agree that the suggested tip percentages are getting out of hand, I personally refuse to follow those and I would be surprised if most people did. I tip the same as I ever did: 10% (or less) for bad service, 15% for decent but unremarkable service, 20% (or more) for good service. There's absolutely no reason to increase the percentages one tips just because the people writing the POS software are putting in crazy values.
- WD40forRust42 3y ago
  [dead]
ponector 3y ago
You can tip any amount. You chose if tipping inflation would affect you. US tipping is sick, and it is not fair to people who are involved in preparing your experience. Why only servers receiving tip? Why not the cook? Or cleaning lady? After all, dirty toilet will ruin your dining experience.
- 93po 3y ago
  some places do share tips across the whole staff, though sometimes waiters still get a larger cut

hooverd 3y ago

Well, restaurants, even on the high end, are increasingly getting louder and less comfortable. I thought that I was just getting older, but it's a real thing [0]. My favorite bars are the ones that are comfortable and don't blast your ears off with music. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-r... [0]

hilux 3y ago

The general trend is that people use money to buy "privacy," i.e. the freedom to not have to interact with "strangers." It's a glaring example of local optimization at the cost of global (your own life, viewed in its entirety) worsening.

xhrpost 3y ago

Yea it seems like western culture is obsessed with advancing hyper individualism. I can't judge, I'm a product of the culture myself, but our mental health seems to keep getting worse the more we keep our lives inside our own bubbles and move away from any aspect of community.

rayiner 3y ago
Coming from an eastern culture, I’m happy to judge. Luckily it’s a self-correcting problem. Hyper individualism makes having children both burdensome (lack of community support) and socially undesirable, and so these cultures are being replaced by less individualistic ones.
- toyg 3y ago
  Except such cultures inevitably morph back into individualistic ones, typically once educational attainments and female emancipation kick in. It's not about culture, it's about economic conditions.
  - telotortium 3y ago
    I think this remains to be seen. It's possible that certain less individualistic cultures exposed to individualistic modernity will adapt in a robust way.
    - toyg 3y ago
      Jewish culture, Italian culture, Greek culture, Spanish culture - all famed for big families, worshipping fertility, etc etc. They all fell to the demands of advanced-capitalism demands. A couple of generations and that becomes true of any culture: once women are free to decide their own destiny, and educated enough to know there is a world of life options, they want to dedicate less of their time to child-rearing.
  - rayiner 3y ago
    It’s about culture, not economic conditions. A number of American sub-cultures that are more educated and wealthy than average (Mormons, Muslims) also have above-replacement fertility rates.

rsynnott 3y ago

That does sound like unreasonable extrapolation; I'd be very suspicious of _any_ prediction that _anyone_ makes about consumer behaviour in 2030, because the track record for attempting to make long-term predictions about consumer behaviour is... not great. At least in this country (Ireland) restaurants seem to be, if anything, fuller than they were before covid; deliveries are definitely more of a thing than they used to be, but no apparent evidence that people are giving up on going out.

93po 3y ago

My home is quiet, I can wear pajamas, it costs 20% less because I'm not tipping (I do tip a couple bucks for takeout), costs even less because I'm not buying drinks, alcohol isn't marked up 5x from retail pricing, and I can relax after my meal instead of spending 20 minutes trying to get my waiter's attention for the check and then having to drive home. The only reason I eat out is it's a date and we're in the early stages of getting to know each other, I want to treat someone (including dates) to something nice, or it's a special occasion.