More Ordering Groceries Online; Fewer Dining Out

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ grocery shopping and dining habits have shifted in recent years, with more now ordering groceries online on a weekly basis and fewer buying food in stores or dining out each week.

Weekly online grocery ordering, which first reached double digits during the pandemic, has since climbed to 15%, while traditional grocery shopping is at its lowest point since 2017. After remaining near 80% from 2017 through 2022, the share visiting grocery stores in person at least weekly has fallen to a record-low 74%.

Meanwhile, after rising to 47% in 2022 from 43% in 2021, the percentage of adults eating out at least weekly has fallen to 39%. This is also a new low in Gallup’s trend and well below the closest pre-pandemic reading of 53% in 2019.

Two other ways Americans feed their households have been steadier in the long term. Weekly takeout ordering, which rose to 39% in 2021, has returned to its 2018 level of 31%. Weekly use of meal-preparation kits remains rare, at 3%, consistent with readings since 2019.

The latest findings are based on a Gallup survey conducted July 1-19, 2026. Gallup began measuring in-store and online grocery shopping as part of its July Consumption Habits survey in 2017 and added dining out, takeout and meal-preparation kits to the survey in 2018. The only Gallup measurement taken during the COVID-19 pandemic was in July 2021, when about half of adults reported that their shopping and dining habits were already back to normal. As a result, the 2021 data likely do not reflect the full extent of the behavioral changes that may have occurred earlier in the pandemic.

Deeper Shifts in Consumers’ Shopping and Dining Trends

Changes in weekly food shopping and dining practices tell only part of the story of how three of these behaviors — in-store shopping, online shopping and dining out — have changed across Gallup’s trends.

Consumers Spacing Grocery Trips Farther Apart

Nearly all U.S. adults (96%) shop for groceries in person at least a few times a year, but since 2022, the percentage shopping in stores at least weekly has fallen eight percentage points, from 82% to 74%, while the percentage going once or twice a month has risen six points, from 15% to 21%. There has been little increase in those shopping in person less than monthly or never.

Dining Out Becoming More of a Rarity

Most adults continue to say they dine out to some degree — just 4% still say they never eat a meal out at a restaurant. But there has been a more significant downshift in the frequency of dining out than is seen for grocery shopping.

As Americans have become less likely to dine out at least weekly, they are only slightly more likely to say they go once or twice a month. The larger shift since 2019 has been toward dining out a few times a year or less often, with the rate doubling from 10% to 20%. That is similar to the 18% recorded in 2021, during the pandemic, although fewer now (4%) than then (7%) say they never eat out.

Online Ordering Has Increased Across the Board

Of the five ways that the poll measures how Americans obtain food or meals, ordering groceries online has seen the broadest increase since before the pandemic.

After doubling from 18% in 2019 to 36% in 2021, the percentage who ever order groceries online rose to 41% in 2022 and holds at that level today. Online ordering is higher now than in 2019 at every frequency: up 11 points to 15% in weekly ordering, up eight points to 15% in ordering once or twice a month, and up four points to 11% in ordering less than once a month.

Lower-Income Adults and Women Shift From Grocery Trips to Clicks

The changes in online and in-person grocery shopping since 2022 have been most pronounced among lower-income adults and women.

• Weekly in-person grocery shopping has declined by seven to 10 points in each income group since 2019. Among lower-income Americans, however, the entire drop has come since 2022, from 76% to 66%, and they remain the least likely of the three groups to shop in person weekly.
• Weekly online grocery ordering has also increased in all three income groups since 2019, and upper-income adults remain the most likely to order online weekly (20%, compared with 13% of middle-income and 11% of lower-income adults). Since 2022, however, the increase has been concentrated among lower-income adults, whose rate has nearly tripled, from 4% to 11%. Changes among middle- and upper-income Americans since then have been smaller and are not statistically significant.
• Similarly, women have become less likely since 2022 to shop in person weekly (now 69%, down from 84%) and are more likely to order groceries online weekly (16%, up from 9%). By contrast, the percentages of men ordering online (now 12%) and doing in-person shopping (80%) are essentially unchanged.

Dining Out Down Most Among Middle- and Upper-Income Groups

The decline in weekly restaurant dining has occurred differently across income groups, though upper-income adults remain much more likely than lower-income adults to dine out. Before the pandemic, in 2019, weekly dining out was at its high point in each income group, though at very different levels: 40% among lower-income, 54% among middle-income and 65% among upper-income Americans. The rates fell in all three groups in 2021. However, the next year, weekly dining among upper-income adults had rebounded from 52% to 60%, while it remained below pre-pandemic levels among those with middle and lower incomes.

In the latest poll, weekly dining out has declined again among middle- and upper-income adults, to 38% and 48%, respectively, while holding steady at 32% among lower-income adults, whose rate was already the lowest and may have had less room to fall. As a result, the gap between upper- and lower-income adults has narrowed from 25 points in 2019 to 16 points today.

Implications

Between 2019 and 2022, online grocery ordering rose from single to double digits while dining out fell, as Americans were, to some extent, still heeding public health advice to avoid public places. Several habits have continued to shift since those disruptions ended, though the reasons are less clear and likely differ for grocery shopping and dining out.

Online grocery ordering has not only held its pandemic gains but has kept growing, becoming a weekly routine for about one in seven Americans. At the same time, Americans are spacing out their grocery store trips. Although the 11-point increase in weekly online ordering since Gallup’s 2019 pre-pandemic reading roughly matches the concurrent nine-point drop in weekly in-store shopping, the survey doesn’t show whether the same people are responsible for that switch. Nor does it measure how much consumers buy through each channel, or whether that has changed.

The convenience of pickup and delivery, which many Americans adopted during the pandemic, may be what’s continued to draw more consumers to shopping online. Higher prices, including this year’s spike in gas prices, may also have led some consumers to economize by making fewer trips.

Whatever the reasons, the trends suggest customers are visiting stores less often but placing online orders more frequently — a shift that aligns with recent industry data and that brings grocers both new costs and new opportunities.

The pullback from restaurants follows a different pattern. Weekly dining out fell during the pandemic, partly recovered by 2022 and has since dropped to a new low, with the latest decline concentrated among middle- and upper-income Americans. The shift toward eating out occasionally rather than routinely may partly reflect the cumulative effect of price increases over the past four years, but the larger recent declines among higher-income groups suggest cost is not the only factor. The survey’s timing may also matter: It was conducted during the largest cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history, in which produce served at some restaurants was identified as a potential cause. A separate Gallup survey in September found Americans’ confidence in food safety at a new low, with 73% saying they have avoided certain foods in the past year because of a recall or advisory.

For restaurants, the challenge is less that Americans have stopped eating out than that they are doing so less often. And with restaurant takeout falling from its pandemic-era high, weekly takeout or delivery does not appear to be making up the difference.

Stay up to date with the latest insights by following @Gallup on X and on Instagram.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.