Newest generation of spenders wants healthy food fast - The Detroit News
“That’s when you know fast casual has arrived,” said Tristano, executive vice president of Chicago-based food-research firm Technomic, at a recent conference in Chicago on the growing popularity of restaurants that offer a casual environment mixed... sales in the fast-casual segment are expected to swell to $62 billion in 2019, up from $39 billion in 2014. Pushing that growth, Tristano said, are millennials hungry for higher quality foods at affordable price points, now at $9 to $13 per check. Chipotle, for example, partnered with two restaurateurs in Colorado to open Pizzeria Locale, a fast-casual restaurant with the assembly line concept customers seem to love. Denny’s launched a fast-casual restaurant called The Den that targets college students. Fast casual is gobbling up sales of quick-service restaurants, such as McDonald’s and Subway. In 2014, the segment grew to own 16 percent of the limited-service restaurant market, up from 12 percent in 2009. By 2019, it’s expected to reach 21 percent. Because of that growth, Tristano said he expects that sales at quick service restaurants will not rebound, but rather will continue to decline as fast casual takes over. Source: www.detroitnews.com
