Office workers skipping sit-down lunches

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - "Let's do lunch." Haven't heard that in a while? Just like pay phones or Polaroids, the power lunch appears to be a dying tradition. People just aren't going to sit-down restaurants on their lunch breaks like they used to.

Restaurants haven't seen lunch traffic this light in 40 years and it is costing them billions of dollars in business as more people order in or grab and go. So what's to blame? Industry analysts say it is a combo of customers being tight on time and cash.

Daniela Galarza, a senior editor at Eater, said that people seek convenience. They can get groceries delivered a lot more easily and are really looking at their bottom line, which hurts restaurants offering delivery.

Mid-scale sit-down chains like Applebee's have taken the hardest hits, while other restaurants have reworked the way they do lunch by offering cheaper and faster midday meals. Coppola's on the East Side is offering a fixed-price lunch to draw in the lunch crowd.

Galarza said office workers don't go out, don't take long breaks, and definitely don't have those three-martini lunches of times past.

Getting you out of your cubicle and into a booth might not be easy nowadays but it is definitely a lot more comfortable.