Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?

Conventional wisdom is that young people — Millennials, in particular — are ardent restaurant customers. And woe to restaurant operators who ignore their wants and needs — which often center on hand-crafted and locally produced products consumed at communal tables. If menus also boast organic, GMO- and gluten-free food, so much the better.

To be sure, Millennials are flocking to restaurants, with NPD Group estimating they made 14 billion visits in 2014. But here’s the rub: They aren’t spending much money in the process — certainly not nearly as much as their Baby Boom parents (or grandparents).

Neil Howe, an expert on economic, demographic, and social change, recently explained why on Monday during a Hedgeye webcast titled “New Model for a New Age, a New Framework for Chain Restaurants.” It was hosted by longtime restaurant analyst Howard Penney.

Howe’s remarks suggested that part of the need for a new framework could be a result of consumer spending. Citing the chart above, he noted that customers aged 65–75 have significantly boosted the amounts they spend in restaurants. “Yet under the 25-year-old age group [spending] is down. It reshapes the profile of who we think is eating out,” he said.

Howe also noted that while on a per capita basis older people spend more, on a per outing basis millennials make more restaurant visits. But, he explained, “They are going out a lot and spending little per visit.”

He said it was typical for a Millennial to spend about $100 over 10 visits to places like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. “Eating out is increasingly not about young people,” he added.