Eat-in or eat-out? A joint model to analyze the new landscape of dinner meal preferences

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we examine the non-home-cooked meal (NHCM) preferences of individuals for their dinner meal by studying the monthly count of NHCM meals by channel type eat-out, eat-in takeout, and eat-in delivery. Data from a 2022 online survey collected in Texas is employed to estimate a multivariate joint model. Model estimation results indicate that the most frequent customers of the eat-out channel are white individuals, individuals from 3+ motorized vehicle-owning households, those in non-joint families, those in households with no children, full-time employees who never work from home or do so only for a small fraction of their workdays, and those residing in areas with a high density of restaurants. The distinct consumer segments for the eat-in takeout channel include young individuals, those with high household incomes, those working from home all their workdays or a substantial fraction of their workdays, and urban residents;the most enthusiastic consumers of the eat-in delivery channel are white individuals, those with less than three vehicles in the household, individuals with children, urban residents, and those worried about pandemic-related personal health risks. Older individuals, non-white individuals, individuals with a graduate degree, individuals in fewer motorized vehicle-owning households and in joint families, those with children in the household, and rural residents constitute the most committed population segments of the home-cooked meal (HCM) consumption channel. The results suggest the important impact of workplace location on dining channel choice. The results also show clear evidence of complementary and substitution effects at play;the delivery channel complements eating out but substitutes takeout. Similarly, eat-out has a substitution effect on eat-in takeout. These effects have important implications for activity-travel behavior due to emerging technology-based ordering options for dining choices, especially in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.