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Have we hit bottom? Restaurant outlook improves slightly
In its monthly barometer of the industry, the National Restaurant Association reports that the outlook for restaurants improved slightly in January compared to the record-dismal outlook in December 2008. (Click here for the full Restaurant Performance Index report for January 2009.)
Here’s an excerpt from the association’s news release:
Although the sales situation improved somewhat in January, restaurant operators still reported negative same-store sales for the eighth consecutive month. Thirty-one percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between January 2008 and January 2009, up from 23 percent who reported a sales gain in December. Fifty-five percent of operators reported a same-store sales decline in January, down from 66 who reported negative sales in December.
And although restaurant owners are still pessimistic, they’re apparently a bit less pessimistic:
Restaurant operators remain relatively pessimistic about sales growth in coming months. Twenty-six percent of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), up from 18 percent who reported similarly last month. Forty-two percent of restaurant operators expect their sales volume in six months to be lower than it was during the same period in the previous year, down from 48 percent who reported similarly last month.
So the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question remains: Has the economy bottomed out?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Restaurant industry news
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By Bmac
March 2, 2009 12:19 PM | Link to this
Well, I was in Bargos in Centerville on thursday night! That place is usually packed, but it was dead…there may have been like 12 people in the whole place, however I have been in Elsa’s (Centerville), and Kramers in Dayton, and they were packed as usual…so I think it is hit or miss right now…people are looking for good value for their dollars!!
By kevin
March 1, 2009 12:37 PM | Link to this
You can just judge the Thursday through Saturday crowd. The bigger issue for restaurants (in Ohio) goes beyond top line revenues. It’s much more about record high food costs, sky rocketing health care and server/bar tender wage rates that have increasesed by 71% since 2006. All of these issues without being able to increase prices because of the bad economy. The only real revenue optimism is that there will likely be 20% fewer restauarants to compete with in 2010.
By Peter
February 27, 2009 8:31 PM | Link to this
How do you know that people are eating out multiple times? Are you writing down their license plate numbers?
By flipper
February 27, 2009 4:18 PM | Link to this
No it has not. But the restaurant business has not suffered much. Take a look athe restaurants on Fairfield Road on Monday thru Thursday night. That tells me that people have plenty of disposable income is they can eat out multiple times a week.