Why restaurant consumers are more value conscious right now

How important is value right now?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robert Byrne, the director of consumer and industry insights at RB sister company Technomic.

We talk extensively about value. There’s a lot of concern about traffic in the fast-food world, with McDonald’s and Wendy’s saying that lower-income consumers are cutting back. McDonald’s specifically said that people are more likely to stay at home.

Byrne discusses whether this is a broad problem or more likely to hurt McDonald’s. We also talk about what consumers mean when they think value and why they keep spending on restaurants despite soaring prices.

We also talk about loyalty programs. Many restaurant chains are focused on loyalty, but last quarter Starbucks did really well with its loyalty customers but lost business from anyone else.

We’re talking about the state of the consumer on A Deeper Dive, so please check it out.