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Aussies spending more on eating out

dining outAustralians spend around $230 every month on fast food and restaurant dining on average, new figures show, but how often they eat out and how much they spend depends a lot on their age.

A Commonwealth Bank survey of its customers’ spending habits has found on average people are spending around $90 per month on fast food and $143 per month on restaurants, up 20 per cent and six per cent since July 2015.

Executive general manager of digital, Pete Steel, said the bank’s customers are spending a total of more than $640 million every month on both fast food and fine dining. Steel said millennials lead the pack with the most frequent meals eaten out, Gen Xers win for total fast food spend, while baby boomers top the list for splashing out the most at restaurants. People under 30 make up almost half of all fast food purchases, and a third of restaurants’ trade but they’re not the ones spending the most cash, Steel said.

“Customers aged 40 to 45 spend the most per month on fast food, potentially because they are purchasing meals for a family, while those aged between 50 and 55 spend the most in restaurants – $184 a month on average,” he said

The bank noted that spending on groceries has barely changed, increasing by only two per cent in the last two years. Just like hip sectors like tech, the food industry is coming up with its own peculiar lingo when describing market shifts.

One of the latest examples is “grocerant,” a word combining “grocer” and “restaurant.” The term has been around for a few years, but it seems to have gone mainstream in recent months. Or at least it’s a term most of us will be hearing more often.

This article originally appeared on Inside Retail. 

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