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This article provides insight into the sales and traffic data from clients subscribing to Black Box Intelligence, a financial performance benchmarking company. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Nation's Restaurant News.
Same-store sales saw another disappointing month in February. The last two months have reversed the industry’s positive momentum from the fourth quarter of 2017 and have revived concerns that the restaurant business may not yet be positioned for sustained growth.
Same-store sales fell 0.8 percent in February, a 0.5-percentage-point decline from January and the weakest month since last September. These insights come from TDn2K data through The Restaurant Industry Snapshot, based on weekly sales from over 30,000 restaurant units, more than 170 brands and representing over $68 billion in annual revenue.
Traffic fell 3.1 percent in February, the industry’s worst month since September 2017. Although traffic dropped only 0.1 percentage points compared with January, the negative effect on sales was amplified by a significant slowdown in the growth of guest checks. On average, consumers spent 2.4 percent more than they did last February. By contrast, year-over-year growth in average spending was 3 percent in January.
“However, the trend that continues is higher guest-check growth compared with the first three quarters of 2017,” said Victor Fernandez, executive director of insights and knowledge at TDn2K.
Since the beginning of the fourth quarter, all months except December have posted year-over-year guest-check growth of at least 2.4 percent. The average for the first nine months of 2017 was only 2 percent.
“Furthermore, the latest TDn2K research indicates that restaurant brands with sustained top sales growth over the last two years have been successful...