Survey: Many Westchester residents are eating out less
-
- May
- 12
Westchester County residents are altering their dining habits in response to a sluggish economy marked by rising unemployment, falling home values and shruken investment portfolios, a survey found.
Forty-six percent of the local residents surveyed indicated that they have cut back on restaurant meals and 42 percent have become more conscious of menu prices when eating out, according to Zagat Survey’s 2009/2010 Westchester/Hudson Valley Restaurants Survey.
The survey also found that 37 percent of the residents are dining at less expensive restauarants and 18 percent are cutting back on alcohol.
“The dining downturn may also be a response to rising prices,” Zagat Survey said in a written statement. “The average cost of a meal in Westchester is $38.99 – a 3.5 percent increase from last year’s survey – making the region among the most expensive in the country, just below New York City ($40.78) and New Jersey ($39.24). On the bright side, many restaurants are rolling out their own stimulus packages to lure local diners.”
The survey was based on the opinions of 4,502 local diners who ate nearly 640,000 restaurant meals in the past year.
Even though family budgets have tightened in the sluggish economy, 53 percent of the residents indicated that they are willing to pay more for organic food, and 70 percent said that eating locally grown food is important to them.
Zagat’s ratings and reviews on 955 local eateries are available as available as a guidebook or at the Web site ZAGAT.com.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 12:38 pm by Jay Loomis.
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