Survey Serves New Truths in Changing Restaurant Market Across U.S. in 2016
Movies, tv shows, and books make the restaurant industry seem romantic, glamorous, and exciting. Who wouldn't want to fly to Paris to open a restaurant or fall in love with their handsome, audacious sous chef who, once you get to know him, has a heart of gold? The reality of the restaurant industry is much different; it's expensive, it's time consuming, it's physically exhausting, and you have to crunch a lot of numbers to make sure you are getting it right. Contrary to what Hollywood leads us to believe, the restaurant industry is anything but glamorous.
Running a restaurant is hard work and once you ensure you are turning a profit, it can be helpful to see how well other restaurants in your city, and across the U.S. are doing.
Working with our friends over at First Data, we took a look at the first half of 2016 to focus on the average revenue, meal price, and number of transactions over the last 6 months (December 2015- June 2016) for the 25 biggest cities in America. How does your eatery stack up?
In analyzing year over year (YOY) growth:
Although a great indicator of overall trends, this is just an average, and does not represent the performance of every restaurant in the cities we studied. Over the past 6-months, the overall revenue for the 25 biggest cities in the U.S. has increased despite some locations experiencing a decrease in the total price per meal ticket. This hike in revenue is likely due to the overall increase in number of total transactions coming through the doors each day.
If you own a restaurant that is struggling, thriving, or staying on par with the average, reach out to the other local restaurant owners in your community to find new, innovative ways to nurture new business and revive the community.
Know the owner of a local eatery? Help them out and share this data with them so they can evaluate their overall performance, understand the areas that are doing well, and take that information to brainstorm ideas for bringing in new revenue.
Want to see data from your industry? Comment below!