Consumers’ rates of visits to bars and restaurants remain somewhat flat at the country’s on-premise venues, with 46% of adults having dined out in the past two weeks, according to Nielsen CGA.
“With visitation remaining fairly flat, it appears we have plateaued out on those consumers willing to return to the on-premise before the situation improves,” Nielsen CGA, the firm’s on-premise research arm, wrote in its most recent report. “Outlets may need to look at fresh approaches to reaching out to those who have not returned.”
Over the last month, the rate of consumers returning to on-premise establishments has increased 5%, with 41% of consumers reporting having dined out in Nielsen CGA’s July 17-19 survey.
In the four states Nielsen CGA tracks regularly — New York, California, Florida and Texas — more consumers have begun to return to restaurants in all states except for California. Since mid-June, between 32% and 35% of Californians have gone out for a meal in the two-week periods Nielsen CGA has tracked. In New York (49%), Florida (52%) and Texas (50%), consumers have returned to restaurants at much higher rates.
However, consumers have not been flocking back to bars at the same rates. Since the first report Nielsen CGA published in early June when 12% of consumers said they had gone out for a drink, the rate of those doing so has only increased 2%. In many states, including Nielsen CGA’s four focus states, bar and restaurant patrons must order food in order to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages.
Consumers in the 35 to 54 age group reported the highest rate of restaurant attendance over the most recent two weeks at 50%. Of the 21-34 age group, 46% had been out to eat, and 44% of those age 55+ had gone out.
The 21-34 age group reported the highest rate of going out for drinks at 25%. Meanwhile, 16% of adults ages 35-54 had gone out for a drink, and just 5% of those age 55+ had done so.
Consumers who are going out are doing so regularly; 58% of those who have been to bars or restaurants in the past two weeks have done so three or more times. This shows “frequent visitation is still seeing improvement and those who are going out are growing confidence,” Nielsen CGA wrote.
Of the 54% of survey respondents who have not returned to a bar or restaurant, the majority of them cite not feeling comfortable being in close proximity to strangers (57%) and not feeling safe going out (55%) as their biggest reasons for not returning. Only 14% said they “realized [they] don’t need these experiences as often.”
In a separate report, BeerBoard, which tracks $1 billion in draft sales nationwide, found that there has been a 9.5% increase in the number of taps pouring across the country. The volume of draft beer sold between August 14-16, BeerBoard’s most recent focus period, increased 14% over sales July31 through August 2. Draft sales nationwide are down 37% from the same period last year.
Craft beer holds the lion’s share of tap handles nationwide at 65.8%, BeerBoard found. Those handles accounted for 35.7% of the total draft volume sold.
“This is by far the highest share total for craft we have seen during our on-premise status reports, up from a low of 49.7% over Memorial Day weekend,” BeerBoard wrote.
Domestic beer made up 20.5% of handles and accounted for 54.2% of total draft volume. Imports occupy 13.7% of handles and account for 10.1% of total draft volume.