All Restaurant Daypart Sales Higher Than Pre-Covid Levels. Still, Wise to Watch Lunch & Late-Night Laggers
Powered by Black Box Financial Intelligence™
Data through the week ending June 12, 2022
Overall Sales & Traffic
- This week marks the 14th consecutive week the industry has experienced YoY negative traffic growth.
- Restaurant sales and traffic growth from the week ending on June 12th posted the softest YoY growth rates since week ending March 7, 2021.
- The negative growth trend will remain in the forecast as traffic continues to fall.
- Despite the slowdowns, same-store sales growth posted positive growth numbers.
How does your performance compare? Benchmark the numbers that matter every week. Delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to Financial Intelligence.
Segment Performance
- Highest Performers include: Fine-Dining, Fast Casual, and Upscale Casual (based on sales growth).
- Lowest Performers include: Quick-Service and Casual Dining (based on sales growth).
- Casual Dining is a newcomer to the low performer category. This is the first week the segment experienced negative growth numbers in well over a year. Reports show performance retracted only slightly.
- QSR, on the other hand, has experienced negative sales growth consistently since the beginning of the year.
Daypart Performance – Pre-Pandemic vs. Now
- Sales across all industry dayparts improved this quarter (Q2 2022) compared to the same quarter in 2019 – the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- However, the same can’t be said for traffic. All industry dayparts posted negative traffic growth during the same time period.
- Late-Night and Lunch dayparts showed the weakest growth for both sales and traffic.
Regional Performance
- Out of the country’s eleven regions, seven posted positive sales growth during the week ending on June 12th.
- Highest Performers include: New England, California, Mid-Atlantic, and Mountain Plains. (based on sales growth)
- Lowest Performers include: New York-New Jersey, Southwest, Florida, and the Western regions. (based on sales growth)
Value-Based Offers Mentioned More in Restaurant Reviews
Powered by Black Box Guest Intelligence™
- Inflation means value is a top priority for both guests and restaurant operators.
- Inflation continues to put upward pressure on prime costs forcing restaurants to pass a portion of the additional costs to consumers.
- Consumers aren’t just feeling the effects of inflation on their food spending habits. Shrinking purchasing power is forcing many to find ways to stretch their dollars.
- Q2 2022 data compared to this time last year shows a greater frequency in the terms, “all you can eat,” “endless,” “unlimited,” “specials,” and “bottomless.
- Mentions of “price” in guest reviews show a dip in net sentiment as well as a decrease in the total average star rating compared to last year.
- Net sentiment for the term “expensive” is down.
- Net sentiment for the terms “deals,” “cheap,” and “worth the money” are all up.
- In response to the inflationary environment, restaurants are stepping up value offerings.
