20 Customer Behaviors at Restaurants Americans Say Are and Aren’t Rude

Is the customer always right? If data from a recent YouGov survey is any indication, the answer is “not always.”

The way customers behave at a restaurant greatly depends on a combination of how one was raised, an individual’s personality, and cultural influences. Many of our eating-out behaviors are so ingrained in us that we don’t think about them until we witness a customer acting in a way we view as unacceptable.

Furthermore, YouGov’s data shows that what’s considered acceptable and not acceptable behavior at a restaurant can vary according to age and gender.

Measuring Misbehaving Customers

YouGov polled 1,042 Americans in April 2024, asking them about how acceptable or unacceptable they view certain customer behaviors at restaurants. They took a random sample and weighted it according to several factors, producing an overall sample margin of error of about 4%.

The following are 20 customer behaviors at restaurants that Americans believe are the most and least acceptable.

The Age Divide

In certain situations, YouGov’s study found a significant difference in whether people of different age groups reported customer behavior as acceptable or unacceptable. For example, 63% of people under 45 felt it’s perfectly acceptable for customers to ask for a table near an outlet, whereas only 42% of people 45+ felt the same.

In terms of how restaurants behave towards their customers, older Americans were far more likely to disapprove of communal-only seating, the exclusive use of digital menus, and loud music playing at the restaurant compared to customers under 45 years old.

Gender Differences

A Norwegian-based study revealed that females are more likely to take selfies, share selfies, and edit photos than males. It may come as little surprise, then, that more men believe taking selfies at a restaurant is unacceptable behavior compared to women.

Customer Behavior in Action

Americans present themselves with many opportunities to watch customer behavior at restaurants, for as of 2022, Gen X and Baby Boomers were more likely to eat out than any other generation. Across generations, men eat out more frequently than women.

Furthermore, you may find high-income earners frequenting restaurants more often — or, at least, splurging on a few meals when they eat out. Households with $200,000+ to their names spend more than eight times as much money on eating out as households living off of less than $15,000.

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