There appeared to be a glimmer of hope for the restaurant industry last month, when BlackBox Intelligence's TDn2K titled its most recent Restaurant Industry Snapshot: “Flat Sales, Welcome Change for Restaurant Industry in January.” In the report, it said that "while same-store sales growth was flat (zero percent) in January, it represented a welcome break from the ten consecutive months of negative sales growth experienced by the industry through the end of last year." That finding, however, was refuted by a recent Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll which found that one-third of the 4,200 adult respondents said they were eating in restaurants less often than three months ago. The poll was conducted in the second half of January. Of them, 62% cited cost as the primary reason.
The modest recovery was also denied by the most recent Restaurant Performance Index report by the National Restaurant Association, which lamented that “same-store sales and customer traffic levels remained soft” in January, which kept the Current Situation Index (tracking same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures) at 98.6 in January, the fourth consecutive month of contraction, and tied for the worst print in four years.
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5 comments:
Seasonal differences. Not only summer vs. winter, but post-holiday spending is lower.
2017 Summer spending will be the slowest in 8 years because of change in administration and still uncertainty as it pertains to a way ahead in this country.
A wait and see attitude - which IS a conservative stance. Its becomes a perceived bad state of affairs only when the doom/gloom nay-sayers get on the boob tube spewing their crapola!
Time will tell, problem is - no one has the time to wait. That "I need it now" syndrome - yuck!
157...or "where's mine" attitude!
Restaurant traffic is a very good barometer of the economy. So, what does that say about the economy? People just don't have disposable income like they used to. Thanks Obama
During the great depression, theaters and restaurants did very well. No matter how bad things are, people will always go to these places as as way of escaping their problems. Some may fail due to poor management, but I think the restaurant industry will always survive. Just around here, during the week, the mall parking lot is almost empty, but the parking lots, around places like the Red Lobster, The Greene Turtle, Olive Garden, Longhorn steak house, etc are usually always full. Even the Movies on the weekends are packed while retail is failing. No matter how bad things will become, I don't see this changing. The trend for this new generation is eating out more and less of grocery shopping.
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