While most people look forward to a home-cooked meal on Thanksgiving, it seems that more and more people are opting to have someone else, namely restaurants, do the cooking.
A new report conducted by restaurant tech company Popmenu finds that 53% of consumers plan to order takeout or delivery for their Thanksgiving meal, an increase from 37% last year. What’s more, 5% are planning to dine out at a restaurant, which is about the same percentage as last year.
As for why more people are opting to skip the home-cooked meal, 63% say it’s because they want to enjoy the holiday without worrying about cooking, while 40% believe it’s cheaper than buying the ingredients needed to cook a Thanksgiving feast at home.
Other reasons include: skipping the hassle of buying and cooking all the ingredients (25%), they prefer a professionally cooked meal (26%) and they’re too busy to prepare a meal or dish (19%).
As for those who are cooking for Thanksgiving, the average person is planning to spend $165 on their holiday meal, with 59% planning to cut back on their costs. To do so, 39% plan to ditch a side dish this year, with mac ‘n’ cheese the dish people are most likely to remove from the menu (31%), followed by cranberries (28%) and sweet potatoes (26%).