The food industry is gearing up for the Millennials who recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest segment of the U.S. population but whose eating habits are much different. As noted in the upcoming Demographics Of Food Spending: Here Come The Millennials, from The Food Institute, 25-34 year-old Millennial households spent 45% of their food expenditures away-from-home in 2013 compared to just 37% for 55-64-year households – the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation.
Looking at it dollar-wise, Millennials spent $50.75 weekly for food consumed away-from home, while Baby Boomers spent $47.67 – 6.5% more despite Millennials having overall expenditures 14% below those of Baby Boomers, according to Food Institute analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Based on this data, if Millennials continue to spend that larger percentage of their income away-from-home as they move into the 35-44-year old bracket, they will be adding an additional $6.0 billion yearly eating at restaurants and other foodservice places than their predecessors, sans inflation. That’s the equivalent of sales at Pizza Hut – which has 10,000 locations worldwide.