Gas Costs Eat Into Restaurant Sales

Consumers are dining out less as pump prices climb. Cheesecake Factory and Chili’s are among the chains reporting declines.

Angela Pierce and husband Nicolas used to enjoy a dinner date once a week. Now the Culver City couple patronize restaurants just twice a month, thanks to gasoline prices that are more than 70 cents a gallon higher in Southern California than a year ago.

Unfortunately for the $175-billion U.S. sit-down restaurant business, the Pierces aren’t the only ones staying away from their favorite eateries. In the last few months, restaurants such as Chili’s, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s
They are responding by offering discount burger specials and new menus featuring lower-priced items with smaller portions and by pushing the gift card business.

The culprit, restaurant chains say, is soaring gas prices. But rising interest rates and increases in the minimum payments that consumers must make on credit card debt have added to the problem.

LA Times