It’s official. Solo diners were the biggest growth segment in 2019.
I was surprised to read recently that solo diners were the biggest growth segment, growing twice as fast as all other eating out visits in 2019. Breakfast is the largest area of growth but it is across the board; coffee breaks, lunchtime visits through to the evening.
Most of us do it at some point, of course; usually combined with a bit of distraction-free working on your laptop.
It’s interesting to think about how we can support this trend through design; seating types more suited to solo diners (high stools and benches perhaps), creating ‘zones’ where people working can cluster and feel less self-conscious, more charging points, table ordering from an app are just a few obvious ideas.
I find this merging of work and leisure really interesting; just as people work in coffee shops, we see examples of workspaces opening up their ground floors for grabbing a coffee alongside the nomadic workforce.
I suppose this is just another way our lifestyle and behaviour is changing; I for one enjoy it and hope it is something that continues to evolve.
