Toulouse: Where did the restaurant customers go for the lunch break?
Customers shun restaurants during lunch break. In question, several reasons including teleworking. The sector is hoping for a change of course.
Nicole, in her forties, works in an interim company in the city center. Every noon, like many of her colleagues, she eats a salad on the spot: “I prepare it myself,” she explains. The management has created a small catering area. I prefer to eat there than to go to a restaurant. It is less expensive. On the other hand, I have my coffee with a colleague outside ”.
Why do customers skip the lunch break at a restaurant? This question worries the sector which notes a drop in turnover between 20 and 30%. “Since the start of the school year, after the euphoria of June, customers have come a lot less at lunchtime,” says Francis du Cardinal. It’s amazing. It is true that on Saturdays, the demonstrations and the blockage disrupt attendance ”. At the helm of the Prima Family group, Benjamin Serra notes a drop of 20%: “People are leaving more for weekends. In addition, the good weather encourages a lunch break in the gardens and parks. The situation will perhaps be resolved with the first frost. We hope so because we need to work after crossing the desert for several months ”. François du Cosmos is also sorry to see his terrace half full at noon: back in, it’s not better for other reasons. Many of my former neighborhood clients no longer come and eat lunch at their homes through deliveries. Fortunately in the evening, it is more or less “.
Deliveries: constantly increasing
Some advance, in vain, the health pass. “Customers have integrated this pass,” assures Olivier Bouscatel, president of the GNI (National group of Independents) 31, which has fallen by 30%. But they have also integrated other eating habits since the covid. There is also the continuity of teleworking and perhaps a problem of purchasing power. “. A situation which does not seem to have an impact on the delivery platforms: “On the contrary, our bicycles circulate more,” ensures the communication of Deliveroo in Toulouse. The lunch break remains a promising niche. The rise of teleworking encourages people to eat quick menus on site: pizzas, salads, burgers but also more elaborate dishes ”.
To the detriment of restaurants whose terraces remain half full for some …