Restaurant Recipes & Gourmet Foods Online Are Served At Home
Gourmet food is good for the soul. Whether the economy is up or down, everybody is going to eat. The difference is that more people are eating at home- good for grocery stores, cookbooks, food magazines and cooking utensil sales… bad for restaurants. Gourmet foods online and restaurant recipes are now being served at home.
According to Reuters, just a few years ago, about half of the $1 trillion American food budget went to the tills of restaurants and fast food outlets. According to BIGResearch, a consumer research firm, about 45% of Americans are eating out less this year to save money.
“What we see now, over the last year and a half, is a very, very significant change in the direction of that trend,” said Ken Powell, Chairman and CEO of General Mills. “Basically, consumers in North America are rediscovering the grocery store and cooking at home again, clearly to the benefit of some and the detriment of others as many restaurants really struggle in the U.S. right now.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that in the first half of 2008 overall newsstand sales for consumer magazines fell 6.3%. However, cooking magazines proved to be the exception to the rule. In that time period, Everyday Food’s newsstand sales rose 8.9%. Everyday with Rachael Ray gained 6.2%, and Gourmet was up 3.5%. The biggest increase was with Bon Appetit, a magazine that serves up recipes for everything from gourmet meals to fast and easy dinners. Its newsstand sales in May 2008 were up 39 percent from a year ago.
Cookbooks sales have also increased. Borders Group Inc. reported that their sales in the second quarter of 2008 were up over the first quarter. Double digit growth in book sales in the food, and cooking category were reported by Amazon.com.
An interesting, and probably unexpected, boost in cookware sales is a direct result of consumers eating out less and going to the grocery store more. After years of eating out, many Americans realize that they don’t have the necessary utensils to cook at home. Although cookware sales overall have declined recently, those with a price tag of less than $100 are doing “remarkably well,” said Florence Sheffer, a spokeswoman for the cookware distributor Meyer Corp. in Vallejo, Calif. The most popular sets are those with celebrity chef name tags.
The trend to eat at home seems destined to increase over the next few years. As families worry about the state of the economy, maybe cooking at home will have a positive impact by bringing families closer together, providing more nutritious food and helping us to save money. Who knows? Maybe the next generation will produce a plethora of amazing chefs because they learned to cook at home from an early age.
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