Americans Aren’t Going Out to Lunch As Much

For months, grocery prices have remained fairly flat while restaurant prices have steadily increased. And don't think for a second that these price hikes have been overlooked by consumers: Restaurant customer traffic is down—especially during the lunch hours—and the big reason why is that going out to eat simply costs too much.

As of spring 2016, there were 624,301 restaurants in the U.S.—a decline of 1% compared to the same period the year before, the NPD Group reported.