Eating out loses flavour as recession singes pockets

LIFESTYLE: Sales have declined by over 20 per cent in the last couple of months.

Don't be surprised if you hear pressure-cookers whistling more in kitchens across the country or domestic helps complaining about more dishes to be washed.

With economic slowdown beginning to hit India and companies implementing pay-cuts and lay-offs, an increasing number of people are beginning to count their pennies.

More and more people are preferring to cook and eat at home rather than having a bite outside as their pockets are no longer as weighty as they were a few months ago.

The slowdown has begun to take its toll on the stomachs of people too.

"As the impact of recession gets deeper, people are preferring to eat more at home than going out to their favourite eating joints," Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (AHAR India) President Narayan Alva told PTI here.

AHAR India is an umbrella organisation representing 20,000 hotels and 8,000 members across the metropolis.

"Our sales have declined by 25-30 per cent in the last couple of months," Alva said, adding that "a larger chunk of this percentage is due to the downturn in the economy".

Echoing similar sentiments, President of the Hotel and Restaurants Association of India (Western Region), S P Jain, said, "Restaurants have witnessed a 20 per cent decline in guests due to the meltdown effect."

According to a recent Union government report, the global meltdown and consequent slowdown in the Indian economy has claimed 500,000 jobs between October-December 2008.

Besides, a score of companies have resorted to pay-cuts in the range of 10-40 per cent, thereby ridding a large section of people of its surplus disposable income.

Jain, who also runs the Pride Hotels chain pan-India, said that a few eating joints have already downed their shutters due to the sharp decline in customers.

"If this situation persists, many more could follow suit," he said.

According to A C Nielsen, a leading global market-research firm, consumer confidence declined by 4 per cent in the second half of 2008.

"Consumers' loss of confidence on top of expected job losses will make shoppers careful with their spends," the firm said in a presentation at the Asia Retail Congress 2009 in Mumbai last week.

The same trend is now increasingly visible amongst households, which earlier used to eat out.