economic class Archives - Marketplace

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Want to make friends from a different economic class? Try your local Applebee’s

by Esther Yoon-Ji Kang

Oct 20, 2023

Full-service chain restaurants attract people from different income brackets and represent a way to break down class barriers, research shows.

James Williams enjoys a lunch date with his wife at an Applebee's near Chicago. A recent working paper titled "Rubbing Shoulders" says chain restaurants are among a handful of places in the U.S. where people from high-income and low-income neighborhoods encounter one another.

Esther Yoon-Ji Kang/WBEZ

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