Blog : Out to Lunch With the One Percent

by Ed Zwirn on September 25th, 2013

Penny stock investors take note: In yet more evidence of the extent to which our daily spending habits are being tracked by companies, a just-released report by Visa on U.S. lunch habits highlights the much-noted gulf between the one percent and the rest of us.

According to the report, Americans go out to lunch an average of nearly twice a week, spending around $10 for each of these meals. This works out to an average of about $18 per week or $936 per year.

Most of this midday eating is being done by men, who outspent women by 44%, spending about $21 a week on lunch, as opposed to the women, who averaged just under $15 weekly.

But while the women are busy dieting and/or brown bagging it, leading to a great lunch spending gender gap, the lunch gap is also striking in terms of regional and class disparities.

--Southerners are the biggest lunchers, The average Southerner spends lunches out twice per week, spending $10 a meal, or $20 per week.

--Midwesterners mirrored the national average, spending an average of $10 per lunch, or $20 weekly.

--Northeasterners ate lunch out the most often, according to the survey, but spent the most when they did (read: New York power lunches), eating out only 1.5 times per week but spending 14% more per meal than the national average of $11.40, for a weekly lunch tab of $17.10.

As I mentioned, the much-touted great gulf between the one percent and the rest of us is real, especially when it comes to lunching. One percent of Americans spend more than $50 per lunch, or close to $5,000 annually. On the other hand, 30% of respondents said they didn't buy lunch out at all.

Strikingly, other than the top 1%, it is the poor who tend to spend the most on lunch, with people saying they bring in less than $25,000 per year spending more than any other income bracket. These low earners forked over an average $11.70 per meal. In contrast, people who make more than $50,000 spent an average of $9.60 per lunch, putting the disparity between these income brackets at 22%.

In any case, the lunch lowdown is just one of many examples of the extent to which corporate America can and does track our spending and personal habits. It is also a good indicator of the great wealth of information available for help in making investment decisions.

A penny stock which markets fast food to rich people? I don't think so. On the other hand, I would like to get invited to one of those high ticket lunches. Your treat, of course.