The Way to Someone’s Heart is Through Their Stomach: Survey Results

Chris Kane
Aug 31, 2018 · 5 min read

The MunchMoney team recently conducted a survey to discover how people felt about their eating spend, especially when supplemented by their employer as a benefit or perk.

We were able to discover that price plays a big role in where people decide to eat, that people visit the same restaurants quite frequently and that Millennials are especially motivated by food; all underlined by an overwhelming excitement for food perks in the workplace.

1. We began the survey by first asking our participants:

“How conscious are you of your food spending outside your home?”

As expected, outcome held true with 90% of those surveyed being mindful of their spending on food, ranging from very conscious to somewhat conscious.

Meaning, the amount of money people are spending on food, outside grocery stores, is a factor in what they are choosing to purchase and where they do so.

2. We then took a deeper dive into the participants price sensitivity with the question:

“How much does your spend for lunch influence where you eat?”

We discovered that only 3% of those surveyed did not care about price when determining where to eat. Meanwhile, 47% said that it influences their decision a “good amount” or “heavily”, and 49% were at least paying attention to pricing as a factor answering “some influence” or “really just depends”.

Meaning, with risk of stating the obvious, price matters. To roughly half of consumers, price is a major influencer in their decision of where to eat lunch.

3. Aiming to understand the frequency in which a person will attend the same restaurant in a given month we posed the question:

“How often do you purchase or eat at the same place in the same month?”

The results showed, that, on average, an individual will eat at the same place 3.4 times per month.

Meaning, if an individual choses a fast casual restaurant, they would be spending on average ~$41 per month at that restaurant alone (the avg. purchase price at a fast casual restaurant is $12 multiplied by 3.4, the avg. of the above). Furthermore, 44% of those surveyed are frequenting the same restaurant once a week or more.

4. Our next questioned turned the focus to relation between food spending and the employer-employee dynamic. We asked:

“If your employer provided lunch-cost benefits like a monthly stipend, would it change your perception of your employer and the company culture?”

Our results showed that, overwhelmingly, 87% of people would be excited about their employer assisting them with their lunch spend and that it would change their perception of that employer and the company’s culture.

Meaning, the way to somebody’s heart is through their stomach. It is important to understand that the things seasoned professionals held in high regard early in their career, may not be the same things today’s young professionals value. Especially, with the younger Millennial generation, which as been dubbed the “Foodie Generation” by restaurant industry analysts.

5. With the craving for food perks in the workplace evident, how much would an employer have to spend to get the desired effects? We set out to answer this with the question:

“If your employer gave you $15 per month to spend on lunch at restaurants near you, how significant of a benefit would this be?”

At a $15 per month dollar level, we were able to identify that 53% of those surveyed would find great value at that level, while 47% were not interested or would prefer something else in its place.

Meaning, about half of a company’s employees would be happy with with an extra $15 per month to spend on food. This conveys that $15 per month is the minimum to drive value for some. That is why we would recommend increasing it to $25 per month, especially in more expensive areas to live like the greater NYC area, to maximize the value with which employees associate this kind of benefit.

Through this survey we are able to conclude several things:

Price matters; people are sensitive to price in regards to food and weigh it heavily in their decision-making process when choosing where to eat.

People are creatures of habit and frequent the same restaurants often, especially when they know they are getting a good deal and maximizing their dollars.

With the ever-increasing competition for quality employees, differentiating yourself as an employer is crucial. Illustrating the fact that providing food perks to your employees is a great way to attract more talent.

For employers, providing a perk like that does not have to break the bank. Simply, let the food do the talking.

Price matters → People frequent the same restaurants → Millennials are incentivized by food.

MunchMoney: Your College Meal Plan for Real Life enables anyone, either as an individual user or through our employer program, to master their food spending via a mobile-first toolkit founded on the access to per-purchase discounts and individualized perks from our network of eateries.

To find out more about how to get started offering food perks in the workplace visit: www.munchmoneyapp.com

Chris Kane

Written by

CEO/Co-founder @ MunchMoney: Your College Meal Plan for Real Life www.munchmoneyapp.com

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