One in twenty young people now have no friends. Why that matters to foodservice…

A decade ago, one in a hundred young people in England said they had no friends at all. Today it's one in twenty. That figure comes from a new IPPR report and it stopped me in my tracks when I read it. It's a sad social story, but it's also a foodservice story. Fewer friends means fewer occasions and occasions are what our sector sells. In this week's Briefing I look at: 

• What ten waves of panel data show, and why the decline began before covid

• How a 76% fall in youth services spending left pubs, cafes and restaurants as the only places to meet, for the generation with the least money to spend

  
  

• Why I now think my own cheerful view from last September was too comfortable

  
  

I also make a second argument, in My Insight, about why a high street in Manchester, Munich or Milan now looks so alike, and what that means for suppliers who thought a broad customer list protected them.

The question I can't easily answer: can an industry built on selling the social occasion keep selling it to a generation that is losing the habit?

Read the full briefing.