€7.77 average lunchtime spend eating out
Irish consumers spend an average of €4.91 when eating at home and €7.77 if eating out according to Bord Bia in its recently-published survey on The Lunchtime Occasion in Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.
Print16 December 2013
Nearly half (49%) of consumers sample lunch at home or at someone else’s home while 29% eat lunch at work. Serviced restaurants – restaurants/pubs/fast-food outlets/specialist coffee shops or sandwich bars – account for 17% of lunching consumers while 6% eat ‘on the move/on public transport’.
The Report, which questions 1,000 consumers – 571 in RoI & 423 in GB – has been carried out by Behaviour & Attitudes and compares lunchtime consumption in RoI and Great Britain.
Both countries are very similar in terms of findings around the lunchtime occasion.
Typically we eat lunch between 12pm and 2pm.
Consumers spend an average of 22 minutes per day having their lunch break which rises to 28 minutes on a Sunday.
In Ireland and Great Britain lunchtime choices are very similar:
Sandwiches (41% RoI/46% GB)
Fruit (17% RoI/10% GB)
Soup (12% RoI/ 9% GB)
Yoghurt (11% RoI/ 11% GB)
Salad (9% in RoI)
Crisps (8% in GB)
Sandwiches are still the most popular for those eating out. Top sandwich fillings here are ham (39%), salads (30%), cheese (29%) and chicken (20%).
At the weekends, the roast dinner features as a popular lunchtime choice.
One in six (17%) Irish people will eat their lunch out in a serviced restaurant during the week and this doesn’t change at the weekend (16%) whereas in GB only 9% will eat out midweek but that increases to 14% at the weekend.
The average spend in a ‘serviced restaurant’ at lunchtime here is €9.98.
Bord Bia reports that the key frustrations when eating out at lunch are ‘speed of service’ and ‘expense’ with one in five finding this irritating.
What people look for in a serviced venue is value-for-money at 35%, convenient location at 32% and quality food at 31%.
The ‘empty-nesters’ here represent 24% of the population who’re over 50 with 60% of them over 65.
Most lunch at home but this segment is extremely important for restaurants as 28% of empty-nesters consume their lunch in restaurants/pubs/fast-food outlets/specialist coffee shots or sandwich bars on weekdays with working dads being the next highest category for these outlets at 16%.
At the weekend 16% of people eat lunch in a serviced restaurant with empty-nesters comprising 21% of this figure.
If consumers are lunching at home, their favourite drink to accompany food is tea. Still the heaviest tea consumers, this changes to coffee if they purchase their lunch (regardless of whether they eat in or take-away), finds the survey. Coffee intake rises when having lunch outside the home generally, it has been found.
In GB £4.62 is spent on lunch at home, with out-of-home averaging £5.20.
However it’s not all about the lunch. One in five will work through their lunch break at least once week. Meanwhile others use the time to stay connected, reading (both online and offline), making or responding to phone calls and checking their social media pages. In Great Britain, they like to use the time to go for a walk.
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