Economy Bad, People Eat More at Home, Food Magazines Prosper
Tighter budgets are encouraging more people to cook and entertain at home, feeding demand for recipes and advice. Everyday Food's newsstand sales rose 8.9% in the first half of the year, while sales of Everyday with Rachael Ray gained 6.2%, and Gourmet was up 3.5%, even as overall newsstand sales for consumer magazines fell 6.3%, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Despite the financial mess, we all have to eat. And to save a few bucks, our kitchens will become the most popular restaurants. If you can't afford that fancy meal out, you can at least afford a subscription to one of the 336 food magazines published this year. Let them eat glossy photos of cake!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
8 Comments:
I hadn't thought about it, but this definitely applies to me. I am eating in 5 nights a week and taking my lunch to work, when less than a year ago, I probably went to restaurants five nights a week.
In the last three months, I have subscribed to three new food magazines... and seeing a picture of Gourmet up there makes me think maybe I need one more...
spartana07 at 6:33PM on 09/30/08
I've reduced the number of food magazines I subscribe to or purchase. About a year ago I realized that no matter how many recipes I marked or clipped, the only magazine I was consistently cooking from was Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. Although, I do read and collect recipes from a number of blogs and web sites, including those of a number of food magazines.
With rare exceptions (special occasion/holiday foods) if I don't make something within a month of finding the recipe, the chances of it ever being made are slim to none.
I like food. I like reading about food and talking about food. But I've come to realize that, as with many other things, there are almost too many choices. The more I've limited the choices, the more I've enjoyed what remains.
I'm also eating out less. It's a two-fold thing: it's less expensive and healthier to cook at home and, equally or more important, the food tastes better. I've also started to limit the number of restaurants I patronize. I've been choosing smaller, locally owned places that cook from scratch, and use high quality, locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. The food often isn't inexpensive, but it tastes so much better!
IndyGal at 8:51AM on 10/01/08
I'm letting a lot of my subscriptions run out. I was getting way too many to read and was not making many dishes out of them. I'm planning to keep Cooking Light and possibly Taste of Home and would really like to get Everyday Food.
I do agree that you can cook great meals at home with some inspiration, but I get most of my ideas off of cooking blogs.
foodieguru at 8:58AM on 10/01/08
336 food magazines?!? Can we get a list? And maybe a run-down of which are the best for what? Blog idea alert!!
seashore7 at 11:35AM on 10/01/08
I try to keep my food magazine subcriptions down to one a year.
Last year I did Food & Wine and this year I'm doing Gourmet.
I think it's nice that cooking at home is gaining popularity again.
It may be the one good thing to come out of this wretched economic crisis.
IndyGal-totally with you-I am infinitely more particular about the restaurants I choose nowadays. I rather spend money on something excellent once and amuse myself at home the rest of the time.
gastronomeg at 11:39AM on 10/01/08
Wanted to remind everyone again of that magazine website: www.mygazine.com where you can read virtually every magazine (food, fashion, etc) every month for free!!!
nichole at 12:47PM on 10/01/08
I cut back on my food mag subscriptions and decided to only buy them on the newsstand since that's all I have time for. I focus on one mag and challenge myself to make at least five recipes from it during the month. I post the results of my road tests on my blog, foodloverslikeme.blospot.com. So far I have done Everyday Rachael Ray and Bon Appetit. Next up: Gourmet.
FoodLoversLikeMe at 7:02PM on 10/01/08
Well I don't subscribe to food magazines at all but I certainly check out recipe blogs a lot more since I cook almost everyday. It makes sense if you live in an expensive city...and it's much healthier.
Yu Ming Lui at 4:19AM on 10/02/08