Higher income households eating out less as consumer pain bites: survey

Canadians say they are dining out at restaurants less than last year amid the heightened cost of living, according to new data from Restaurants Canada, which shows higher income households with the sharpest change.

A retail analyst and consumer expert says the report is another example of the “K-shaped” economy writ large, which sees a growing divide between top earners in Canada and lower income brackets that is also showing strain among more middle and higher income earners.

The report was released Thursday and featured details of Restaurants Canada’s survey, which was conducted by Angus Reid in May and included 1,500 Canadian participants. When questions were asked about dining out at restaurants, it included both fast food (a.k.a. “quick-service restaurants”) and full-service restaurants.

Eighty per cent of all respondents said they have been eating out less often due to the rising cost of living, up from 75 per cent a year earlier.

That sentiment was also shared by 78 per cent of households that claimed to earn a combined income of $100,000 per year or more, up from 70 per cent in 2025.

Eighty-one per cent of households that said they earn between $50,000 and $100,000 annually said they were dining out less this year, up from 76 per cent last year.

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Meanwhile, households that earned less than $50,000 were little changed, with 87 per cent saying they are dining out less than last year, up from 86 per cent a year earlier.

“You have this sort of divergence of consumers: You have people getting really rich — that’s the upward swing of the ‘K’ — and then you have people getting poorer, and that’s the downward swing of ‘K,’” says consumer and retail analyst Bruce Winder.

“The folks who are doing really well, they’re spending more, but it’s hiding the fact that a lot of folks are spending less on the bottom arc. This is just another sort of piece of evidence that reinforces that.”

 “That income disparity, that wealth disparity has grown significantly.”

The Restaurants Canada survey also showed 61 per cent of respondents saying they would visit a table-service restaurant more often if they had more disposable income, up from 53 per cent in 2025.

“You have people who just don’t have enough disposable income to go to restaurants as often as they used to because of the price of food, the price of other things like rent and fuel,” says Winder.

“The other piece is I think people are thinking twice about just the sheer value you’re getting. You know you’re getting less and paying a lot more, and that doesn’t sit well with everyone.”

There have been multiple other examples of a widening divide in consumer spending power over the past year, reflecting that “K” shape, as households with more wealth and higher incomes see their ability to spend rise, while those with less wealth and income are finding it harder and harder to get ahead.

In April, Statistics Canada reported the wealth gap widened in 2025. The agency defines the wealth gap as “the difference in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40 per cent and the bottom 40 per cent of the income distribution.”

A report on debt levels by Equifax in March showed those with higher credit scores had much higher mortgage debt in 2025 than the year before, suggesting those with comparably better credit ratings are struggling more to make ends meet.

Another report from NerdWallet last year showed consumers planned to spend less on holiday gifts than the year before, with the numbers reflecting an increase in middle and higher income shoppers planning on cutting their holiday budgets compared to a year earlier.