Sign of the Times: The Empty Restaurant

I don’t eat out too much, but in the past couple of weeks, Andrea and I have eaten out twice, and I don’t find what I’ve seen encouraging.

We stopped in at a Pizza Hut last Monday for dinner around 7:30 and, except for the staff, the place was totally deserted. Having worked in a restaurant, however, I know this wasn’t exactly prime time.

Then today, after Church, we arrived at Din Fung, the Chinese Buffet in our neighborhood, and there was nobody there at 12:40 P.M. in the afternoon. The buffet’s problem may have been driven in part by its problem. When we were approaching the buffet, Andrea commented that it didn’t look like it was open because there were no cars in the parking lot.

Once we parked, there was a car, and a trickle of about three groups of customers came in after we did. Still, not what I’d call a lunch time rush. And Sunday Lunches are probably the biggest time for eating out. Restaurants are always packed on Sunday. But not this Sunday.

And it’s not that Din Fung’s a new restaurant, it’s been here since I moved to Boise-5 1/2 years ago. And it’s not that Sundays are slow for them. In fact, they used to charge a Sunday Lunch Rate equal to their dinner rate on most other days.

Not today. I got a pleasant surprise when I saw that I’d only been charged $6.99 per person for lunch, but I think that things are not going to be so pleasant for the economy. If what I saw these past couple trips out is an indication, people are cutting back spending and scaling back their lifestyles, which could keep the recession going.

Anyone else seen restaurant volume drop off significantly?