On 7/18/2010 12:13 PM, Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> In article
> >,
> Stan > wrote:
>
>> In >,
>> Melba's > wrote:
>>
>>> It's the last sentence in the paragraph that caught my attention. Do
>>> you believe the statement?
>>>
>>> <http://www.chicagotribune.com/featur...-schools-20100
>>> 717,0,7359675.story>
>>>
>>> "This country cooks. Something like 70 percent of all meals are going to
>>> be prepared in one form or another by someone in the house," says Harry
>>> Balzer, chief industry analyst of the NPD Group, where he has followed
>>> Americans' eating and drinking patterns for 25 years. "The average
>>> American gets about 200 meals (a year) from a restaurant and that's
>>> almost unchanged for 10 years."
>>
>> It depends on the health of the economy. More people eat home when the
>> economy goes south, like now, because eating out is the first place
>> people look to when they need to save money.
>
> I don't know, Stan. Lots of restaurants are offering special deals to
> get people in the door and it seems to be working, based on what I've
> seen.
>
>
Parade magazine today had a coupon for either a free fruit smoothie or a
frappe at McDonald's. Local restaurants, since the downturn in the
economy, are floating coupons everywhere. DW came home with a couple of
free two-piece chicken dinners from Popeye's that were handed out at a
meeting she attended. Just driving around I don't see large crowds at
local restaurants either at lunch or at dinner except for the
all-you-can-eat places.