LAST MONTH FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE DECLARED THAT the recession the country had slipped into almost two years ago was “very likely over.”
And while that may well be true, it’s not how most people are feeling—yet.
While the recession technically could be past—in other words, the country has posted growth once again in its gross domestic product—that good news has yet to manifest itself in such tangible ways for restaurant operators as increased consumer traffic or upward-bound top lines. For the foodservice industry, the Champagne is still on ice.
But history has taught us that the economy is cyclical and that good things come to those who, while waiting, are able to position themselves for the upturn.
In this special section titled “After the Fall,” the NRN staff asked prognosticators, industry experts and operators on the front lines to forecast what lies ahead for the industry over the next 18 months. They also were asked to suggest what steps operators could take to capitalize on the industry’s emergence from what is now being called the “Great Recession.”
The report is divided into three sections that focus on the Consumer, the Marketplace and the Restaurant, and offers readers both macro- and microeconomic views of the post-recession realities that will affect their businesses into 2011.
The section explores the consumer’s modified attitudes toward spending and ordering as well as new economic and financial realities, government initiatives that could impact operations, and the altered business landscape for casual-dining, quick-service and fine-dining operations.
Drilling down into the nuts and bolts of restaurant operations, the section looks at what’s ahead for hiring, purchasing, real estate, research and development, marketing, and technology.
The projections, while not entirely upbeat, are not thoroughly bleak, either. The prevailing wisdom among trend watchers is that until the nation’s employment situation rights itself, consumer confidence will remain in the doldrums, suppressing expenditures for eating out and limiting operators’ ability to entirely lift themselves out of the current business malaise.
On the upside, many operators have learned to live within the confines of their new realities. Along those lines, they have streamlined operations, fine-tuned purchasing practices and revamped business models, so they are poised to profit once the recovery makes its presence known.
With any luck, that event is not too far off, and we’ll all be toasting the good times again soon.