Business First

Business First has an online poll.

Question .. How have gas & food prices affected your dining out habits?

Current results. Have no idea how many votes.

24% not changed
55% dine out less often
11% go to cheaper places
8% seldom dine out
2% other

That means about 2 out of 3 respondents are spending less. Has to be having an impact on restaurants. If the situation persists, I expect we will see quite a few failures, especially mid-level independent places, in the short term.

[Robin Garr]

This doesn't surprise me ... no matter how you slice it, hard times lie ahead, and both for our local restaurant industry and for ourselves, we can only hope it won't last long.

It might be fun to try this same poll here and see if the numbers differ when we're looking at an audience composed primarily of "foodies."

This doesn't surprise me ... no matter how you slice it, hard times lie ahead, and both for our local restaurant industry and for ourselves, we can only hope it won't last long.

It might be fun to try this same poll here and see if the numbers differ when we're looking at an audience composed primarily of "foodies."

It would be informative to see the demographics of the people polled in the Business First poll in comparison to those on this site. I am definitely dining out less frequently. I don't like it but I am not in the upper echelon of the income scale. The good news is I am cooking a lot more at home and that's a good thing. I just miss the experience of a meal at a restaurant.

It would be informative to see the demographics of the people polled in the Business First poll in comparison to those on this site. I am definitely dining out less frequently. I don't like it but I am not in the upper echelon of the income scale.

No way of telling of course. My guess is that the the people on this site are significantly higher in income and educational level than average. I expect that Business First readers are even higher.

This is an guess on AVERAGE, not individually. I sure don't help this site's average on either .. being retired .. and graduating from high school because some of the brothers at St X took pity on me.