What's with all the pickups?

January 8, 2006 6:55 PM

How come Tex-Mex restaurants attract so many big SUVs and pickup trucks?

This is something I've noticed in Austin as well as in several small cities in Texas.

In recent months there's an Italian joint we found that we like. So happens it's next to a Mexican place. Last night I actually made a rough count of the cars as I went through the parking lot. The Italian place: 35% pickups/SUVs. The Tex-Mex place: 80%. This particular Tex-Mex place doesn't even serve alcohol on their premises, so it's certainly a food thing. What's the deal? Is there a demographic phenomenon at work here?

How is it that [seemingly] Ford Escalade drivers like the enchiladas, while a Saturn driver relishes the lasagna?

posted by zek to society & culture (18 comments total)

Could it have to do with the size of the parking lots?
posted by interrobang at 7:02 PM on January 8, 2006

Is it a chain? None of the Mexican places I frequented in Houston drew truck-drivers, but the ones in the suburbs, which were all chains, did, and it seems (near Houston at least) that most of the Hummers and SUVs are suburban (though not all Suburbans. Ha!)

Anyway, Austin is quite a bit wealthier than Houston too. Also, it could be the Tex-Mex factor. Many people like their foreign food "Americanized," and those who feel this way are surely not sensible enough to drive an efficient car such as a Honda or Saturn.

You better just go eat at Stubb's from now on.
posted by Brittanie at 7:08 PM on January 8, 2006

People who drive trucks & SUVs are much more likely to be meat-eaters, steak-lovers, and chips-n-salsa lovers. It's that simple, seriously. Demographics, ya know.
posted by davidmsc at 7:28 PM on January 8, 2006

Is this in Austin?
I want to know to which Mexican restaurant and which Italian restaurant you are referring before I can make broad, callous generalizations about people. I might even be accurate.
posted by Seamus at 7:31 PM on January 8, 2006

Isn't there a price difference between the two restaurants? When I think of Italian and Mexican restaurants, I don't think of them as being in the same price range at all. I think the price is at least equally significant.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:32 PM on January 8, 2006

Yeah, so I've learned that the post and preview buttons are not in fact interchangeable, no matter what my too-fast finger thinks.

The atmosphere may also account for some of this. SUV drivers at least theoretically have more passengers. Is the Mexican place more family- or kid-friendly?

As a one-time thing, there could have been some kind of promotion. Or maybe the local Greenpeace chapter or something was meeting at the Italian place.

See if you can quantify this over time, to make sure the difference is directly traceable to the restaurant's immutable properties -- do you notice this on different days of the week, for example?
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:40 PM on January 8, 2006

Are these places popular among Mexicans/Mexican-Americans? Trucks and SUV's are pretty big in that market, at least here in Chicago. Not that you have to be Mexican to like Mexican food. Or drive a truck.

Isn't there a price difference between the two restaurants?

There could be lots of demographic phenomena here. Are these casual Tex-Mex places compared to more formal Italian places? People who are drive trucks and SUV's for work (ranchers, construction workers, etc.) might tend towards the casual eateries, especially if they are stopping by for lunch or right after work. Or are there a lot of Mexican/Mexican-American ranchers and construction workers in Texas?

Or is it that the Italian place's lot is full of Fiats (sound) and all the other cars look bigger by comparison?
posted by hydrophonic at 7:52 PM on January 8, 2006

Because both SUVs and Tex Mex suck.
posted by Sara Anne at 8:20 PM on January 8, 2006

The price difference between Italian and Tex Mex would be counter-intuitive since I'd assume that your average Saturn or Honda would cost less than an SUV. Then again, maybe that's why the Saturn drivers can afford to eat better.
posted by Space Coyote at 8:39 PM on January 8, 2006

A theory: SUV's are owned by families. Families stay in for Italian (except pizza) and go out for Tex-Mex.
posted by smackfu at 9:28 PM on January 8, 2006

I don't think you can even frame it in terms of "why do Tex Mex places appeal to SUV drivers?" until you get some more data points. Right now you've just got one restaurant and want to generalize from that. It's possible that that particular restaurant is popular among a group of people who drive pickups and SUVs.

Maybe the owner used to work construction and all his friends eat there. Maybe there's a team sport that is sponsored by the restaurant and everybody goes there after games. Maybe that restaurant is advertising specifically to SUV drivers somehow. Maybe it's a coincidence.

You'd need to find other Tex Mex restaurants and see if the numbers bear out in those cases as well. Until that happens, you're barking up the wrong tree with this question.
posted by Hildago at 9:36 PM on January 8, 2006

It's not random, that's for sure. I don't think there's anything wrong with noting that people who are likely to buy and drive pickups and SUVs are more likely to go out to a Tex-Mex place.

Market researchers have terms for this sort of thing. "Lifestyle clusters" is what you're looking for. "Market segmentation" is a broader term.

It's the same kind of phenomenon (in reverse, to be picky) that accounts for Cadillacs being favored by retired white couples aged 55 and over, and middle-class black couples aged 40-50. I think you'll agree that those two clusters have little in common in terms of the food they'll eat or the clothes they'll buy, but they have the car in common.

I bet you could find out a lot of things about those Tex-Mex customers just by looking at the vehicles:
* They wear boots.
* They belong to the NRA.
* They like NASCAR.
* They voted for W.
posted by dhartung at 11:28 PM on January 8, 2006

Maybe Tex-Mex places are seen by parents as a good, cheap place to take the kids out to eat? I mean, all kids love tacos, right? And an awful lot of Tex-Mex places in Texas have some sort of all-you-can-eat or buffet deal. I even remember Tex-Mex restaurants in San Antonio that were geared specifically towards kids. I don't remember their names, but I do recall one that had really horrid radio commercials that featured Paul Rodriguez babbling about chocolate chimichangas.

Anyway, I figure parents with multiple children are more likely to own and drive SUVs.
posted by Clay201 at 2:06 AM on January 9, 2006

Hey, I did not vote for W. Now clear out, I gotta shoot some stuff offa my boots.
posted by Dunwitty at 3:37 AM on January 9, 2006

Fat people drive SUVs. Tex-Mex is fattening food. These fat SUV drivers eat Tex-Mex.
posted by caddis at 4:54 AM on January 9, 2006

In Austin, I think the more salient question is "why does Italian food attract a disproportionately low percentage of SUV drivers." Seems like more than half the passenger vehicles on the road here are SUVs.
posted by adamrice at 7:03 AM on January 9, 2006

Are you talking about Chuy's and Romeo's?
posted by fourstar at 10:04 AM on January 9, 2006

fourstar, I've been contemplating this question since I first read it trying to figure out which two restaurants zek is talking about. Those two didn't even occur to me, and I live two miles away up Barton Hills.

If those are the two restaurants (or even Baby Acapulco's and Romeo's), I think the answer is clear.

They cater to different populations.
Baby A's - Drinkers, especially the college, fraternity crowd. Big cars to because being a business major isn't nearly as manly as they like to picture themselves

Chuy's - Caters to people who like their Mex-Mex and Tex-Mex to be very Americanized, also know for being a college drinker crowd, less fratty, but still the spawn of Suburbanites hence the suvs.

Romeo's - Aims to be a little classier, yet is still a South Austin destination. So you don't get the richies like Vespaio, but you probably don't get much of the South Austin Bubba set either.

I'm saddened that zek hasn't enlightened us.
posted by Seamus at 4:37 PM on January 9, 2006