"For a variety of reasons (streaming media, working from home, the need to find comfort and shelter from the maddening crowd, or practicing Hygge, the Danish art of coziness) U.S. consumers are staying home.  Staying home also means eating more meals at home and an increasing number of those meals are purchased from restaurants and food service outlets. In the year ending September 2018 dining at a restaurant represented 37% of all visits and remained flat compared to last year and restaurant meals consumed in-​home accounted for 32% of all traffic and increased visits by 2%, reports The NPD Group."

"Proof that U.S. consumers are homebodies is that 71% of those who chose to eat at home were at home prior to eating the restaurant meal. Adult, single person parties with higher incomes of $100K or above are driving the majority of restaurant meals eaten at home increases. Families and groups of five or more make up 31% of food service meals eaten at home, according to NPD’s ongoing food service market research, CREST."

According to AudienceSCAN, Frequent Diners are using mobile devices and the internet in order to avoid going out to do many activities. For example, within the last month, these consumers have used the internet to do banking online (50.1%) and order food from restaurants (30.7%). Within the last six months, they've used mobile devices to purchase products (39.4%) and order food for take-​out or delivery (28.6%). In fact, they're 65% more likely than other adults to find advertising on their mobile smartphone apps useful to them.

"The 2% increase in eaten at home restaurant meals is reflected across restaurant segments, quick service and full service. Although dinner still represents almost half of all at-​home occasions for food service, morning meal, and lunch showed the strongest growth in the period. French fries, burgers, and pizza topped the list of menu items eaten at home from quick service restaurants; and Chinese/​Asian/​Indian, rice, and French fries were the top menu items from full service restaurants eaten at home, reports NPD."

“'Home is where the heart is when it comes to U.S. consumers but they still look for the convenience that is offered by a ready-​made restaurant meal,' says David Portalatin, NPD food Industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America. 'We don’t look for this trend to change anytime soon and operators and food service manufacturers can take advantage of the stay-​at-​home movement by offering at-​home eaters with innovative ready-​to-​eat meal solutions and a greater degree of convenience.'”

Restaurants and grocery stores can promote their prepared meal, takeout, or delivery options to Frequent Diners digitally. According to AudienceSCAN, last year, 69.9% took action after receiving an ad via text message or after seeing an advertisement on their mobile smartphone apps and 68.1% reacted to email ads they received. They're also 82% more likely than other adults to click on text link ads on websites and 7% more likely to find advertising on social media networks useful. Don't be afraid to mix in traditional ads though. Last year, 76.5% of this audience took action because of TV commercials and 71.4% were driven to action by direct mail ads/​coupons.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.