Yesterday, I enjoyed the “Recession Diet” story in The NY Times describing how many Americans are skimping to battle rising food costs. Among other things, folks are buying more store-brand groceries and eating out less.
On the latter point, this should lead to less food waste, as it’s easier to control portion size and leftovers at home.
Then again, restaurant owners are no fools. They’re adjusting their strategies to maintain customers. Hence, restaurant commercials increasingly emphasize price at least as much as product. (Sadly, I’ll bet you can think of three such ads off the top of your head).
We’re inundated with reminders about the Dollar Menu, some sort of chicken snack that I can hold in one hand while I’m maneuvering through my busy day and the “opportunity” to buy three 10-inch pizzas for $12 (mentioned in the above article).
This weekend, I noticed that a commercial for T.G.I. Friday’s Right Portion, Right Price menu–a Wasted Food favorite–led with its $5.99 starting point. Based on the original press release, they’ve dropped the starting point by a buck.
From a waste perspective, that’s good news. If T.G.I. gets more business by serving less food for less money, maybe more restaurants will follow suit. Then we’d see less half-eaten meals being scraped into the dumpster.