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All year long the buzz on the economy was rotten. Get used to slow growth, folks, said the omen mavens. Your customers are unsure over the economy and their own finances, pinching the copper right out of their pennies. Sure, interest rates are low, but just try to get a loan, they scoffed. And the kicker: when the Democrats move into the White House your bill for all their new taxes and mandated benefits will loom larger than Norm Peterson's bar tab.
But something happened on the way to the poorhouse. Somebody forgot to tell the nation's top-grossing restaurants that business was supposed to be bad.
As a group, the Hospitality 500 roared out of 1992 propelled by a whopping 10 percent sales gain over 1991. Compared to the anemic 3 percent rise posted from 1990 to 1991, this year's group has reason to beat its collective chest. This year's 500 made some serious money. Perhaps the lean years of 1990 (5 percent growth) and 1991 forced us to suck in our guts and cinch the money belt a little tighter. Those hard fiscal lessons paid off in 1992 as evidenced by the biggest sales increase in the history of the Hospitality 500 report.
Credit big gains in customer traffic. A solid 53 percent of the 500 reported customer traffic higher in 1992 than in the previous year. Fifteen percent told us traffic was unchanged. By comparison, 44 percent of last year's 500 reported higher customer counts. A 9 percent rise in traffic will do wonders for the p&l's top line. So will the 42c bump in dinner check average reported this year.
However, when you look at the statistics that point to productivity and efficiency, 1992's numbers don't sparkle as brightly as those in last year's report. Sales per employee dropped over $1,000 on average in 1992, while sales per seat dropped $100, about 3 percent dips in both measures.
Food costs dropped for 36 percent of the 500, the second year in a row more respondents reported a cost reduction than an increase.
* As with every year since its inception in 1976, the Hospitality 500 respects the right of every independent restaurateur to withhold financial data. Therefore, we have never and...