Watching how TV affects how we eat in restaurants

Back when I covered the world of marketing, grocery stores would do research on the music playing in the store, using the music to keep shoppers in the store longer so they will buy more food.

Restaurants don't always rely on music but in two establishments on the same night, I found television being used, one in a highly distracting manner and the other perhaps a subliminal way to get us to eat more in a restaurant.

I was in a KFC restaurant, and the rather prominent TV was tuned to the Lifetime Movie Network. Everyone will agree that I am not the target audience for this channel, but the sequence was a stalker trying to beat up and kill his victim. This was not acceptable dinner fare.

When asked, the staff offered to switch the program to news. I then joked that it couldn't be as violent as this program. It could be, but their news choice ended up having a baseball game, where the only hitting was bat on ball.

My primary purpose for being in that neighborhood was dessert at Bakers Square. I eat very little pie these days, but save one time a year for a slice of Key Lime pie. The décor was a huge contrast, much more open and friendly. And the restaurant had huge TVs. The TVs themselves weren't a big deal. After all, TVs in eating establishments are a part of our lives.

What was intriguing about the Bakers Square choice was that the TVs were tuned to the Cooking Channel. Not even the Food Network, but the Cooking Channel. The episode featured Giada and the twins making a meal for Todd and his office buddies, and then ravioli of some kind. Seeing all that delicious food did tempt me to order more food, and that could have worked if I was in there for dinner. Of course, I did make the joke in my head that having the Cooking Channel put pressure on Bakers Square to have better food, otherwise the TV food could intimidate the regular food.

DMK Burger Bar, an upscale grass-fed burger joint/bar in Chicago, specializes in showing kitschy and cult classics on dueling TVs all with the sound turned down. The visual spectacle fits in well in a bar but looks out of place when eating an elaborate burger or one of its intense fries combinations. And bars have been showing sports on TV while serving mediocre bar fare to get you to drink cheap domestic burger with that so-so food.

We are a society that eats in front of the television or computer screen or smart phone. If we are going to eat with a screen, we might as well get some pleasure out of the experience, as long as it isn't training us to overeat.

Comments

[Ryan]

Tv in a restaurant will be a big factor specially if the operator tuned it in a food or cooking channel. Costumers for sure will be delighted by the Tv and the restaurant will benefit from it for sure.

[Dan]

For sure it does affect the costumer. Just turn the tv on cooking channel. Adds appetite to the costumers.