Food & Beverage

'Dog Days' of August = better days for restaurants

August restaurant sales looked better. (Image: iStock)

September 23, 2020

Despite on-premise dining restrictions in slightly less than a quarter of restaurants in August, the rate of traffic and dollar declines eased slightly versus the same period a year ago. According to NPD Group, traffic was off 10% for the month, while spend was down 9 percent year over year for the month, a news release said.

"As the summer progressed and mandated restrictions were lifted, an increasing number of consumers became more comfortable dining out based on the safety protocols restaurants put in place," NPD food industry advisor, David Portalatin, said in the release. "After months of staying at home and cooking their own meals or ordering in, they were ready for the restaurant experience again."

Since the height of the stay-at-home and mandated dine-in closures in April, several areas of the restaurant industry have improved or returned to closer to their pre-pandemic levels over the last months. For example:

• On-premises visits have improved every month since April as dine-in closures have lifted.
• Digital orders accounted for more than 20% of all restaurant occasions in April, but were down to 17% of occasions in August.
• Restaurant deals, like BOGO offers were used in 30% of April occasions, but have slowed every month since, representing 27% of August occasions.
• Adult-only parties have steadily improved share over the last several months, from 59% of visit share in April to 63% in August.