Urban Living: Eating Habits and Spending Patterns reports on findings from Mintel’s August 2006 Urban Consumer Spending Patterns Survey. This study surveyed 1,788 adults who live in urban centers, custom-selected by zip code, and compared those individuals to an additional 1,000 adults representative of the general population. Standard demographic profiling information, including age, sex, household size, income, ethnicity, employment status, and level of educational attainment were also collected for both groups, and overlaid on our analysis of both urban and non-urban consumer. With food purchasing habits as a lens, Mintel explored the behavior differences and similarities of consumers from each population sub-group. Urban Living: Eating Habits and Spending Patterns defines the most likely prospects for new restaurants, shops, or other food service concepts in both urban and non-urban environments.

Examining this survey data along the urban/non-urban divide and cutting it by demographic market breaks allows us to reveal which demographic criteria correlates most strongly with increased purchase intent. In a many cases, a consumer’s age was a deciding factor in determining the likelihood to engage in progressive (or more costly) food spending practices, such as eating takeout, eating in restaurants, or using online food delivery services. Subtle differences found in likelihood to engage in these behaviors are prevalent enough among certain population sub-groups to inspire food suppliers, marketers, and retailers to engage in different business practices for these consumers.

Because urban tastes and choices are closely observed and often mimicked by suburban consumers, it is important for all food suppliers to be aware of urban food consumption trends. But how is a food supplier to know when it is necessary to engage in different marketing and promotion practices their urban and non-urban consumers? Mintel’s Urban Living: Eating Habits and Spending Patterns report defines the moments of food-related purchase intent that lend themselves to separate marketing and product development initiatives according to the urbanity of the target consumer. The report also goes further, defining those residents within cities that are relatively more likely to respond to new, food-related product or service offerings.

As dining options in suburbs continue to grow more sophisticated, non-urban Americans will look to cities for the latest trends in food purchasing and eating habits. Mintel’s Urban Living: Eating Habits and Spending Patterns demonstrates which food sales concepts will easily translate from city to suburb and which require urban population densities, incomes, concentration of youth, and diverse population bases to sustain themselves. The answers are not as intuitive as one might think.

This report examines the demographics, expenditures, attitudes about eating, eating habits, and food purchases of urban dwellers, as they compare to non-urban dwellers. It explores similarities and differences between these population sub-groups across various characteristics and also explores the survey base as a whole across standard demographic breakdowns. Data presented in this report are based on extensive Mintel survey research into urban living conducted in August 2006.

For the purposes of this report, data from urban respondents was sampled from respondents who live in zip codes within the city limits of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, San Francisco, Memphis, Baltimore, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Atlanta, Miami, Honolulu, and Minneapolis. See the appendix of this report for a complete listing of zip codes surveyed.