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Chicago,
IL – June 2021 / Newsmaker Alert / Geography
matters when it comes to pandemic recovery for U.S. restaurant chains.
A mix of factors, like pandemic-related restaurant restrictions, the closing
or opening of units, or chain performance, even the weather or event, can
impact restaurant chain customer transactions in a specific market area,
reports The NPD Group. For example,
restaurant chain customer transaction declines in the Dallas-Fort Worth
(DFW) designated market area improved from double-digit declines last year
to -4% in May 2021 compared to May 2019, a pre-pandemic basis of comparison.
DFW ranks in the top 10 markets to recover from the steep customer transaction
declines caused by the pandemic last year. In addition to Texas lifting
COVID restaurant restrictions in March, the market’s May customer transactions
reflect new restaurant units opening and a +10% increase in fast casual
chain transactions compared to a year ago, according to NPD’s CREST®
Performance Alerts, which provides a quick weekly view of chain-specific
transactions and share trends for 75 quick service, fast casual, midscale,
and casual dining chains representing 53% of the commercial restaurant
traffic in the U.S.
In
addition to the DFW market, other top market areas showing improvements
in restaurant chain customer transaction declines in May are Atlanta, GA.;
Birmingham, Alabama; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Orlando, Florida. All these
markets are in areas where restaurant restrictions had been eased or lifted
as of May, and fast casual chain customer transactions grew.
The
recent increases in fast casual chain restaurant transactions were an improvement
from the beginning of the pandemic when fast casual restaurants didn’t
do traditional quick service restaurants. Traditional quick service restaurants
were well-equipped before the pandemic to handle off-premises operations,
like carry-out, delivery, and drive-thru. Most fast casual chains, which
relied more heavily on dine-in and didn’t have drive-thru operations, were
not. As fast casual chains quickly pivoted to focus on off-premises operations
and restrictions were eased, their situation improved. In May 2021, total
U.S. fast casual chain customer transactions increased by +2% compared
to May 2019, and customer transactions grew over the May 2019 levels in
30 of the top 50 markets. Total U.S. restaurant chain customer transactions
across all segments declined by -9% in May 2021 compared to May 2019.
“I
often get the question, when will the U.S. restaurant industry improve,
and part of the answer is one market at a time,” says David
Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in
America. “My advice to restaurant operators, foodservice distributors,
and manufacturers is to have a national view but act locally.”
About
The NPD Group
NPD
offers data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help our
clients grow their businesses in a changing world. Over 2,000 companies
worldwide rely on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance
across all channels, including brick-and-mortar, e-commerce, and B2B. We
have services in 19 countries worldwide, with operations spanning the Americas,
Europe, and APAC. Practice areas include apparel, appliances, automotive,
beauty, books, B2B technology, consumer technology, e-commerce, fashion
accessories, food consumption, foodservice, footwear, home, home improvement,
juvenile products, media entertainment, mobile, office supplies, retail,
sports, toys, and video games. For more information, visit NPD.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @NPDgroup.
Media
Contact:
Erick
Bauer
The
NPD Group
647-723-7736 |
