Diners are cutting back on weekday meals out so that they can spend more on the weekends instead, a restaurant CEO says

• Diners are cutting back on weekday meals out and spending more on the weekends instead, the CEO of GoTo Foods said.
• Consumers are limiting their spending and visiting less frequently, Jim Holthouser said.
• Other restaurant chains are also feeling the hit of cash-strapped diners.

Diners are cutting back on meals out during the week and saving the money for the weekends instead, a restaurant executive says.

Jim Holthouser, CEO of GoTo Foods, formerly known as Focus Brands, said that some diners had been limiting their spending. GoTo Foods owns Cinnabon, Auntie Anne's, Jamba, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli, Schlotzsky's, and Carvel.

Customers are "coming a little bit less frequently" and "cutting back, it looks like, during the week, saving their discretionary dollars more for the weekends," Holthouser told Business Insider, referring to data from GoTo Foods' loyalty programs.

Data from payments company Square suggests that diners are visiting restaurants on the weekends more frequently than they were pre-pandemic, while weekday lunch spending has taken a hit, likely due to hybrid work. The data only compares restaurant spending in 2019 and 2023, and doesn't show how this has changed in recent months.

Holthouser said that the most frequent customers of GoTo Foods' brands were "hanging in there" but that overall the average number of items per transaction was "down a little bit."

"Consumers are getting a little more conservative, definitely tightening their belts, and they're pulling back a little bit as they feel the pinch of inflation," Holthouser said, adding that restaurants had to deal with "a bit of a skittish consumer who doesn't quite know how to feel."

Other restaurants have said in recent months that customers are cutting back and described a gloomy outlook for the industry. Chains including McDonald's and Wendy's said that customers were visiting less often as they felt the pinch.

Fast-food chains raised prices significantly during the pandemic. Grocery prices also shot up but have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, while restaurant inflation still remains elevated.

Holthouser said that GoTo Foods' portfolio — which includes seven brands in the US, as well as locations overseas and a licensing business — meant it had a range of revenue streams that would help offset its core domestic business if growth was flat.

Its licensing business includes selling its products in grocery stores — like Cinnabon pastries and Carvel ice-cream cakes — as well as its current collaboration with Subway to sell foot-long Cinnabon churros and Auntie Anne's pretzels, which Holthouser said was a "huge success."

Estimated retail sales from GoTo Foods' licensing partners totaled about $1.5 billion in 2023, or just over a quarter of total sales across its brand portfolio.