Consumers Increasing Food Budget Investment on Fast Food

KANSAS CITY, MO – The Economic Research Service’s (ERS) Food Expenditure Series points to Americans’ growing appetite for dining out. Spending for food away from the home establishments totaled $931 billion in 2018, compared with the $781 billion spent on food at home from grocery stores, convenience stores, and other retailers. Full-service restaurants with wait staff and limited-service restaurants dominate the food-away-from-home market. Full-service restaurants’ share of the food-away-from-home market rose from 35.6 percent in 1998 to 36.3 percent in 2018, while limited-service restaurants posted a larger increase in market share from 33.6 to 36.6 percent over the same period. The share of food-away-from-home expenditures occurring at hotels and motels and at schools and colleges declined between 1998 and 2018, while the shares at recreational places and at retail stores and vending increased slightly.