--- title: America Is Ordering Fewer Drinks at Restaurants description: A new study by the NPD Group shows that beverage orders at restaurants are down 4%, mostly due to a decrease in soda consumption. authors: - name: Ian Salisbury role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/ bio: Ian Salisbury was a senior editor at Money, focusing on investing, banks and mortgage. at_money_since: 2013 articles: 91 covers: - Lifestyle - Economy and Politics - Housing - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2015-10-14T15:24:01.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T10:33:44.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Fast Food - Food & Drink - pubdesk - restaurants word_count: 266 canonical: https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![181397947](https://img.money.com/2015/10/restaurant-soda-drink-less.jpg) It's no secret Americans are drinking less soda. Now that trend is starting to take its toll on the restaurant industry, where cheap-to-produce and easy-to-mark-up soft drinks have long been a cash cow. A recent report by the NPD Group found that over the past five years, Americans ordered 4% fewer beverages at restaurants -- a whopping 2 billion fewer servings. The apparent culprit: America's love affair with healthier options, such as bottled water, coffee, and "so-called" sports drinks, which have also been cutting into profits at corporate [icons like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/upshot/soda-industry-struggles-as-consumer-tastes-change.html). In fact as far as soda goes, the 2 billion number doesn't tell the whole story. The kinds of beverages that saw orders fall -- including carbonated soft drinks and milk, which account for about half of all beverage orders -- actually registered a decline of *4 billion orders* over the past half decade according the study, which [was reported in QSR magazine](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/beverage-orders-drop-4-percent), a trade publication for the fast food and "fast-casual" dining industries. The development can't come as welcome news for the restaurant industry. Outlets like McDonalds and Wendy's have come to rely heavily on their sometimes loss-making dollar menus -- which offer enticing prices for food on the assumption that diners will round out their bill by tacking on orders for [highly profitable items like french fries and soda.](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124292373005243859) Fast food chains are backing away from the dollar price tag with new ploys like combo deals and McDonald's all-day breakfast. The hope is that even if you're staying away from soda, maybe you will order a latte with your Egg McMuffin. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Restaurants", "item": "https://money.com/restaurants/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "America Is Ordering Fewer Drinks at Restaurants" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/", "name": "America Is Ordering Fewer Drinks at Restaurants", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-10-14T15:24:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:33:44.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "America Is Ordering Fewer Drinks at Restaurants", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/10/restaurant-soda-drink-less.jpg", "width": 4665, "height": 3017, "caption": "181397947" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ian Salisbury", "url": "https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/#author", "description": "Ian Salisbury was a senior editor at Money, focusing on investing, banks and mortgage.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/06/Ian-Salisbury.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-10-14T15:24:01.000Z", "description": "A new study by the NPD Group shows that beverage orders at restaurants are down 4%, mostly due to a decrease in soda consumption.", "abstract": "A new study by the NPD Group shows that beverage orders at restaurants are down 4%, mostly due to a decrease in soda consumption.", "@id": "https://money.com/soda-consumption-decline-restaurants/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:33:44.000Z", "wordCount": 266, "keywords": [ "Fast Food", "Food & Drink", "pubdesk", "restaurants" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Restaurant", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant" ] } ] } ] } ```