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The Role of Time in Fast-Food Purchasing Behavior in the United States

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  • Hamrick, Karen
  • Okrent, Abigail

Abstract

Meals, snacks, and beverages purchased at fast-food restaurants account for an increasingly large share of a typical American’s food budget and have been blamed for Americans’ expanding waistlines and poor diet quality. This study uses data from the 2003-11 American Time Use Survey to examine the effects of time-use behaviors, prices, sociodemographic characteristics, labor force participation, and prices on fast-food purchasing patterns in the United States before and after the Great Recession. Fast-food purchasers spend less time sleeping, doing housework, eating and drinking, and watching television than nonpurchasers, and more time traveling from place to place. They also tend to have higher incomes and higher education levels. While the time that Americans spent eating out at all restaurants declined during and after the 2007-09 recession, the share of the population eating at fast-food restaurants on a given day stayed fairly constant, seemingly unaffected by the economic downturn, but the share for sit-down restaurants declined.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamrick, Karen & Okrent, Abigail, 2014. "The Role of Time in Fast-Food Purchasing Behavior in the United States," Economic Research Report 191034, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersrr:191034
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.191034
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    3. Benjamin Scharadin & Yang Yu & Edward C. Jaenicke, 2021. "Household time activities, food waste, and diet quality: the impact of non-marginal changes due to COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 399-428, June.
    4. Lin, Biing-Hwan & Dong, Diansheng & Carlson, Andrea & Rahkovsky, Ilya, 2017. "Potential dietary outcomes of changing relative prices of healthy and less healthy foods: The case of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 77-88.
    5. Rahkovsky, Ilya & Jo, Young & Carlson, Andrea, 2018. "Consumers Balance Time and Money in Purchasing Convenience Foods," Economic Research Report 276227, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Mottaleb, Khondoker A. & Mishra, Ashok K., 2020. "Income, Urbanization, and Consumption of Processed Foods: Implications for Nutrition and Health Policies for India," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304206, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Okrent, Abigail M. & Kumcu, Aylin, 2016. "U.S. Households’ Demand for Convenience Foods," Economic Research Report 262195, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca L.C., 2023. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food: The Effects of Time Lost on Food Store Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 16036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca, 2021. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313856, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Hamrick, Karen S. & McClelland, Ket, 2016. "Americans' Eating Patterns and Time Spent on Food: The 2014 Eating & Health Module Data," Economic Information Bulletin 262141, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Marchesi, Keenan & Byrne, Anne & Malone, Trey, 2023. "The Rural Food-Away-From-Home Landscape, 1990-2019," USDA Miscellaneous 335420, United States Department of Agriculture.

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    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Health Economics and Policy; Labor and Human Capital;
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