Drive-Thru Is Down; Gen Z Is a Big Factor | Modern Restaurant Management | The Business of Eating & Restaurant Management News

Talk about a dichotomy. At nearly $100 billion, Generation Z has enormous spending power — and yet, among all generations, they are reacting with the most intention to rising costs borne from inflation.

At Revenue Management Solutions, we see evidence of this shift across multiple channels and frequencies. Our analysts examined how dining habits differ across Gen Zers, millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers in our consumer study. Among the more than 800 US diners surveyed, responses revealed that while older generations have not strayed from habits developed during the pandemic, the youngest generation feels the pinch.

Gen Z's penny-pinching is most dramatic in the drive-thru, the pandemic darling of off-premise dining. With gas prices over $4 a gallon, a drop in drive-thru traffic is not surprising, and our historical data shows a positive correlation.

But the drop in Gen Z's frequency is notable. In Q4 of last year, 91 percent of those under 25 reported at…

Jana Zschieschang

Jana Zschieschang is Chief Marketing Officer of Revenue Management Solutions, LLC, a global enterprise providing patented, data-driven solutions and services that drive sales and profitability for over 100,000 restaurants in more than 40 countries and 20 languages. In her role, she designs global marketing and communication strategy and implementation at each of RMS’ offices in Tampa, Tokyo, Singapore, London and Paris. Before being named CMO, Zschieschang was RMS President of EMEA, where she founded RMS’s London office, quadrupled the staff and added dozens of new clients.

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Jana Zschieschang