News

Restaurant transactions improve slightly

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August 3, 2020

Restaurant chain transactions dropped 11% nationally for the week that ended July 26, which is a slight improvement from the 12% drop the previous week, according to a news release from data analytics company, The NPD Group.

Customer transactions at major QSR chains fell 11% as well, which was flat from the previous week, while full-service restaurant transactions saw a 3-point improvement from the previous week and were down 24% from this week last year, continuing that sector's recent flat pattern.

"As we move into the weeks ahead the possibility exists for setbacks in restaurant customer transactions," David Portalatin, NPD food industry adviser, said in the release. "Up until July 31, somewhere between 25 and 30 million Americans were receiving Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation as part of the federal government's CARES Act, which has provided $600 a week of enhanced unemployment benefits.

"These unemployment benefits translated to between $15-18 billion per week being put into consumers' bank accounts, and for context, total restaurant industry sales right now are a bit less than $8 billion per week. Although the benefits don't entirely evaporate on Aug. 1 because of backlogs and late claims, the loss of the $600 a week unemployment benefit could adversely affect the restaurant industry."

NPD Group serves insights and data to more than 2,000 companies globally at 27 worldwide offices.