Reliable Utilization of Family Life Cycle Information to Help Increase Food Service Industry Profits

The Catering Services industry has struggled during the past five years. Since 2008-09, a severe economic downturn has led businesses and households to spend less on catered events. Businesses faced with plunging profitability cut back sharply on catered events such as office parties, corporate seminars and product launches, and reduced average spend per head for events that did go ahead. The deteriorating consumer climate led consumers to put off discretionary events and choose to cater events themselves or spend less at a restaurant rather than use the industry 's services.

“A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the United States was spent to prepare meals at home. Today about half of the money used to buy food is spent at restaurants - mainly at fast food restaurants.”

First focusing on the fast food industry overall, people age from 18 to 34 are more likely to go to fast food restaurants in the last seven days than other demographic groups. This can be largely attributed to the quick service and relatively lower price that fast food restaurants provide, which accommodate to their quick pace of life and financial status. In addition, households with one or more child are also more likely to visit fast food restaurants, a result of the large market of advertising burgers and fries towards kids and families, making fast food restaurant a place for family fun time.

Many expert sociologists have alluded to a weakening of the family structure of the years. In an effort to determine if their findings are true, the factors that influence the deterioration have to be examined. Such factors as unemployment, welfare, and the entertainment industry play a major role in the weakening families. “For if the family is becoming less viable economically, our communities and our financial future are in jeopardy.” (Ellwood, 1993) Lastly, from the 1960’s until now, the global community has witnessed the most drastic changes.

Introduction Tyler Perry was born Emmitt Jr. on September 13, 1969 the third of four siblings, to father Emmitt Perry Sr. a carpenter and mother Willie Maxine Perry (née Campbell). Throughout his childhood, he endured abuse at the hands of his father. Later, during an interview Perry was quoted saying, “My father’s answer to everything was I’ll beat it out of you” (Gale 2006). He additionally disclosed being molested by a friend of his mother at the age of ten. Following years of abuse, Perry attempted suicide.

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

Over the past few decades times have changed; one cannot say if it has been for better or worst. It is becoming more common for a household to have two working parents versus just the father being the only source of income. Not to mention that it seems that everyone now is running around one hundred miles an hour. With that said, it has affected the American households eating and living habits. Fast food, frozen dinners and processed food have become part of our daily routine. Half of the time people have no idea what chemicals, preservatives or ingredients that they are consuming. It is more a question of accessibility even though our health should be our main concern. David Zinczenko in, Don’t Blame the Eater, portrays the number of restaurants found in close range when he illustrates, “Drive down any thoroughfare in America, and I guarantee you’ll see one of our country’s more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants. Now, drive back up the block and try to find someplace to buy a grapefruit”(7). Zinczenko argues that a lot of fast food restaurants are available to Americans compared to healthy food choices. In Portion Distortion --You Don’t Know the Half of It, Shannon

From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers.

Explaining just about one quarter of the United States population eats fast food every day , he claims that fast food restaurants have “not only [changed] the American diet, but also our landscape, economy, work force and popular culture…and the consequences have become inescapable regardless ” how often you eat it ( Schlosser, 2004, p.3). According to DATAMONITOR a market research firm’s Fast Food Industry Profile,” [in] the United States fast food market grew by 0.2% in 2009 to reach a value of $71.4 billion. And, the compound annual growth rate of the market in the period 2005–09 was 3.7%” showing even years after the book was written, fast food continues to take a greater market share of consumer’s food dollars (“Fast Food Industry profile”,2010, pg. 12).

The fast food, or quick service restaurant industry (QSR), represents approximately 200,000 restaurants and $155 billion in sales in the U.S. alone, they are one of the largest segments of the food industry (Hoovers, 2011). This segment of the restaurant industry is “highly competitive and fragmented… number, size and strength of competitors vary by region, market and even restaurant. All of these restaurants compete based on a number of factors, including taste, quality, speed of service, price and value, name recognition, restaurant location, customer service and the ambience and condition of each restaurant” (Chipotle, 2010).

The fast food industry has been growing dramatically during the last few years. For this reason, we should try to find out what are the several factors why fast food consumption keeps growing among young people and adults. Therefore, as we have seen, the popularity of fast food is spreading rapidly among many people due to the following three main reasons: good taste, convenient time, and price. Personally, working for a fast food restaurant for a brief moment in my life, I can attest to this. Marketing also plays a big part to more people eating fast food. It’s in our culture in America to expect fast food companies to market and strategize their ways to make us, the consumers, to buy more food and consume more food so they can make more profit. Especially now with commercials and social media. The fast food industry has thrived in the modern era. It’s thriving so much, the industry is growing faster than the U.S economy, at

Currently analysts are now noticing a return to growth as establishments offer consumers products that they can 't get at home. According to the American Culinary Federation; today 's consumers are more affluent, bold and demanding in their expectations of restaurants and bars due to the observation that American palates have grown more sophisticated and adventurous than ever before.

In 2000, the composition of the family related metrics kept the similar feature with elders, 3-and-more-generation household, and divorced or widowed marital status. The contribution of this social dimension in 2000 decreased to 13.68% (the fourth factor). In 2010, family related features mentioned above split into two principal factors, i.e. elders with health concerns for the third factor and married population with children aged between 0 and 14 for the fourth factor, showing an urbanization trend with aging society as well as smaller-sized family.

Social Factors - The California Pizza Kitchen sells pizzas, pastas, salads, etc. and the ambience of the restaurants is quite informal and homely. Its primary key to its success has been that they were the first pizza restaurant that offered fresh and non-traditional ingredients for its pizzas. On a whole, the American consumer base is traditionally not very nutritional conscience when it comes to dining out. Regionally, the consumer preferences are suiting the business model of the company in most areas; however changes in the consumer

The paper presents an analysis of the different factors influencing the restaurant industry and how these factors increase or decrease the demand for such services. The hypothesis that will be examined is that the performance of restaurants is mostly based on the type of food chosen by customers when they decide to go out for dinner, lunch, breakfast, or simply for a snack. What type of food refers mainly the nationality or concept of the food, (traditional American, Italian, Indian, Latin, or from any other type of culture). This factor is important because when customers go out to for dinner; they decide what to eat before deciding where to eat. That is why this factor is considerably important according to the hypothesis.