News

US restaurant chain transactions drop by 36%

March 30, 2020

The mandated restaurant dine-in closures are hitting chains hard, according to the NPD Group. Total restaurant customer transactions declined by 36% in the week ending March 22 compared to the same week year ago, according to NPD's CREST  Performance Alerts, which provides a weekly view of chain-specific transactions and share trends for 70 quick service, fast casual, midscale, and casual dining chains. 

Customer transactions at QSRs, which represent the bulk of restaurant industry transactions and have more off-premise business than full-service restaurants, decreased by 34% in the week ending March 22 compared to a  year ago. At full-service restaurants, which are heavily reliant on dine-in sales, struggled to quickly convert to off-premise modes, customer transactions dropped by 71%, according to a press release.

About 94% of U.S. restaurants were under some level of restrictions, with most prohibiting on-premise service, according to NPD's restaurant location database, ReCount. On-premise represents 52% of restaurant industry dollars, and off-premise, like carry-out, drive-thru, and delivery, represents 48% of dollars. As of year-ending February 2020, digital orders represented 13% of all off-premise dollars. 

"It's highly probable that this crisis will define winners and losers by their digital proficiency since consumers may prefer the contactless delivery protocol that digital ordering offers," said David Portalatin, NPD food industry adviser and author of Eating Patterns in America, in the release. "Now that we're living in a world where the entire industry is an off-premise business, digital orders gain importance and provide an edge to those who already lead in that space."