Full-service restaurants’ sales recovery from coronavirus lockdowns appears to have stalled in mid-July as dine-in percentages slipped, according to data from Black Box Intelligence.
The Dallas-based restaurant analytics company said Thursday that, while same-store sales for the industry remained “essentially flat,” full-service recovery from state and local restrictions languished amid a surge in infections in many states.
After 12 consecutive weeks of same-store sales improvements at full-service restaurants, Black Box said those sales have stagnated over the past three weeks.
“As the number of COVID-19 cases rise and new capacity restrictions are implemented at the regional level, the percentage of dine-in sales has decreased,” Black Box said in its weekly report.
“During week ending July 12, 61% of all full-service restaurant sales were dine-in,” the company said, but that was down from a pandemic high of 64% two weeks before.
Black Box cited several possible reasons for stagnant growth in full-service sales.
“In addition to some guests likely being more cautious and avoiding dining out in response to the rising health concerns, full-service restaurants seem to have also hit a ceiling in terms of percentage of their restaurants that are open for dine-in business,” Black Box noted.
“After a steady climb since the end of April, the percentage of restaurants existing in the pre-COVID era that are now open for dine-in has plateaued around 87% for the last three weeks,” the firm said.
But while dine-in sales have slowed for full-service, off-premise sales growth in the segment improved in the past three weeks.
“Off-premise sales growth for full-service restaurants had been slowing down as dine-in sales increased, but that trend has now been reversed in the last three weeks,” Black Box said in its report.
Off-premise sales increases continued to increase for limited-service brands, which are traditionally focused more on to-go, drive-thru and delivery, a trend that had been noted since April, Black Box said.
Black Box said same-store sales for the week ended July 12 were best in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.
Same-store sales growth in the period was the worst in the District of Columbia as well as California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington state.
For our most up-to-date coverage, visit the coronavirus homepage.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless
