Dining-in or dining-out: Influences on choice among an elderly population

With the elderly becoming an ever-larger proportion of the Taiwanese population, their restaurant patronage behavior has attracted increasing attention. The physiological and psychological changes that mature consumers experience and their impacts on restaurant patronage behavior demand a more assiduous investigation by restaurateurs in order to better understand this population's motivations for, and inhibitors to dining-out. A telephone survey obtained important restaurant patronage information of consumers 65 years of age and older who live alone. The variables examined include demographic variables, health-related variables, dining-out motivation attributes, dining-out inhibitors, and measures of consumer restaurant-patronage behavior. Two distinctive segments became apparent: restaurant patrons and nonpatrons. The discussion profiles each segment, identifies marketing implications, and proposes relevant operating strategies for restaurant managers.