I saw this from the New London Day, and printed it because the economy is so scary these days, and my heart goes out to restaurant workers, they seem to be one of the hardest hit when people cut back.

"The gas crunch is taking a bite out of lunch crowds in the region as more workers brown-bag it to cut expenses.

Monica Harsmanka of Waterford, who works at Electric Boat, has a short commute, but filling up her Ford Explorer is taking its toll, she said. She says she eschews the workplace cafeteria now in favor of garden salads and leftovers from dinner.

”I just started doing it for the past month or so to cut corners,” Harsmanka said. “I almost died when I filled the gas tank. I mean, $85 - it's ridiculous. You can't go anywhere.”

Meanwhile, Monica's State Street Diner, a longtime breakfast and lunch diner in downtown New London, has had to resort to sending waitresses home early over the past month. And business partners at Pizza Grotto in Groton, which opened nine months ago, laid off two workers and are handling the mealtime rush by themselves.

Chris Zingus, co-owner at Pizza Grotto, said customers come in apologizing for cutting back from several days a week, partly because they're brown-bagging it on the other days.

”We've also noticed that a lot of offices that used to send out for big orders to be delivered - doctors' offices, you name it - they used to do it once a week, now they do it twice a month,” Zingus said. “So that's a big thing we're missing right now.”

The trend of eating out less - which is by no means universal here in southeastern Connecticut - has been borne out by studies by the NPD Group, a consumer and retail market research firm headquartered in Port Washington, N.Y.

In two recent studies, NPD found, first, that eating out at restaurants has dropped off this year and, in findings released this week, that more people are brown-bagging it to save money and eat healthier.

Harry Balzer, NPD's vice president, says his firm's behavioral studies chronicle what surveyed participants “really do,” not what they say they'll do.

Balzer shared the report's findings, noting that last year the average American made 42 meals at home over a two-week period and brought them to work or school instead of dining out. That number was 34 meals in 2001, he said.

Those 42 meals constitute “the highest number we've seen this decade,” Balzer said. If extrapolated to cover the country's population of 300 million, it shows that 5.2 percent of “all lunches” in America are brown-bagged - “the highest it's ever been.”

Here in southeastern Connecticut, consumers frustrated with the $4-a-gallon price of gasoline and high food and utility prices are trying to save, they said in e-mails to The Day and interviews in the parking lot of ShopRite.

Patricia Williams of Groton, a secretary in a local doctor's office, brings salads to work and buys soda at the grocery store instead of at the vending machine.

Last year, “when the gas prices passed $2 and change, I started brown-bagging it,” Williams said. “Saved a whole lot. Lunch was costing $3 to $5 a day. Now it might cost me $5 a week, and I use coupons with everything, so that saves even more.”

Larry Stannard of Salem said in an e-mail that four months of brown-bagging have saved him as much as $34 a week, since he only spends $16 a week now to buy bag-lunch ingredients.

”A sandwich, a small Ziploc with some pretzels or potato chips, and a piece of fruit” is the typical menu, he said. “Water I get from the cooler in the office break room. Much cheaper and healthier. I've lost some weight, too.”

As consumers cut back, restaurants that are feeling the pinch are offering specials and trying hard to avoid a hike in prices that could, they fear, drive even more customers away.


Eds' Kitchen and Creamery in Montville is offering a different $4.99 dinner special every day and posts a message at the counter empathizing with customers' high utility and energy costs.

”Gas prices, everything's up,” said shift supervisor Robert Eccleston Jr. “They've affected the restaurant business big-time. You see the elderly people will come maybe twice a week instead of three times a week. They're cutting back.”

Monica's was paying $1.13 for one lemon. She switched markets, a move that is saving the restaurant up to $50 a week, said manager Janie Foster.

”We're really feeling it now,” added waitress Cookie Peterson. “I'm getting sent home earlier now. That's never happened before in the 5½ years I've been here. It's going to hit us all. I'm afraid what we'll see in the wintertime when the fuel prices hit.”

Spot Cafe owner Bob Dragoli said he hasn't seen a drop-off in business, but he may have to raise prices at the Groton eatery because with every food delivery there's a surcharge. But he's trying to hold off.

”Business isn't that far off,” Dragoli said, “it's just that the overhead is so much higher, and we've maintained prices. We'll see what the future brings.”