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The Senior Customer Class

Flexible and experimental when they eat out, these older Americans make up a powerful dining group.

As an older, milder, slower moving contingent, American seniors can't possibly be fixated on the hot new restaurants, healthy menu items and groundbreaking aesthetics, right?

Wrong. Sure, some seniors may want the menu and decor to stay the same year after year. But plenty of others would just as soon shake up their dining habits. What's more, says Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a consumer research firm in Port Washington, New York, "This is a group that loves to sit down in restaurants."

To some degree, the stereotype of older Americans being less likely to splurge on dining out holds up. Only 2 percent of seniors are likely to eat at fine dining establishments, according to NPD's survey of 600,000 consumers, and only 22 percent are likely to eat their meals out at mid-priced locations. But that doesn't mean they don't enjoy nice restaurant meals. While many seniors are sitting down in fast food and fast casual locations during lunch, says Balzer, they're likely to opt for a nicer, sit-down restaurant for dinner.

The notion would hold that older Americans are more likely to pick a restaurant and menu that will be consistent and reliable over time. However, research indicates that they are flexible, curious and experimental.

Seniors are drawn to a new restaurant as much by its looks as by its menu, service or even its specials. Some hot buttons for seniors are:

• Comfortable seating
• A diverse menu that includes wellness items
• Minimal noise
• Prompt (but not fast) service
• A warm lighting aesthetic.

Although the dining habits of seniors and the general population do not always vary widely, a few exceptions stand out:

• Older diners are more likely to order dessert—75 percent, versus less than a quarter of the average population.
• When they do order dessert, they're more likely to order pie or ice cream
• Fish and seafood are top menu choices, as are sides like baked potatoes, cole slaw and garden salads
• Seniors tend to skip French fries, pizza and Mexican fare
• They are 19 percent more likely to order coffee than the average diner (6 percent)
• They're more likely to order wine than beer
• They're less likely to order soda (14 percent versus the average diner at 27 percent)

Seniors are driven to fast food/fast casual restaurants more than any other. NPD says older Americans are likely to buy fast food 60 percent of the time. But the seniors who frequent mid-priced restaurants (which is 22 percent of all seniors) do so a lot more often than the general public. NPD calculates those seniors visit mid-priced restaurants 90 percent of the time they eat out, compared with 76 percent for the average American.

What does that mean? It means that diners 65 and over want to go out, sit down and eat their meal in a pleasant restaurant environment, as opposed to ordering it to go as younger people do.

But seniors are more likely to sit down in a restaurant where they perceive a high value for their dollars spent. But they do expect excellent customer service, a varied menu and a solid bang for their dining buck.

Excerpted from Restaurant Business' MonkeyDish.com