Despite Projections, Restaurant Visits By Baby Boomers Has Grown

DENVER (CBS4) - When was the last time you went out for dinner? More often than not, if you're a baby boomer.

If you think "traditional" when you think baby boomers, think again. They're not only bringing home the bacon, they're also going out and having someone else fry it up in the pan.

A recent study by the NPD Group, a global market research company, found that over the last five years restaurant visits by boomers and older Americans have grown while those by millennials, those under the age of 30, have declined. But it wasn't supposed to be that way.

The assumption was that baby boomers would follow traditional patterns and spend less on dining out as they got older. However, that turned out not to be the case.

According to Colorado Restaurant Association, baby boomers are Colorado's most experienced restaurant generation. Consumers in Colorado will spend more than $23 million per day on food served away from home for the year.

Restaurants in Colorado serve over two million meals a day and they employ about 240,000 workers, generating $653 million in state and local sales taxes.

Translation -- baby boomers have gone from "I can make it" to "I can make it happen by picking up a phone and making a reservation."