Source: www.fastcasual.com, May 2020

Customer transactions at major U.S. restaurant chains declined by -21% in the week ending May 17 compared to the same period last year, a slight gain from last week’s -23% decline and the fifth consecutive week of improvement, according to The NPD Group.

Major quick-service chain restaurants, which represent the majority of restaurant transactions, improved transaction declines to -20% in the week compared to a -21% decline in the prior week from a year ago, according to CREST Performance Alerts, which provides a rapid weekly view of chain-specific transactions and share trends for 70 quick-service, fast casual, midscale and casual dining chains.

Continued improvement in restaurant chain transaction declines was aided by adding 93,000 restaurant units in states where restrictions to on-premise dining were lifted from the week ending May 10 to the week ending May 17, according to a press release. These openings are more critical for full-service restaurants, which are more dependent on diners eating on-premise.

“The reopening of restaurant dine-in services across the country will certainly continue to help drive improvements, but it’s important to keep in mind that restaurant on-premise dining operations are not serving to full capacity because of safety protocols,” David Portalatin, NPD food industry adviser and author of Eating Patterns in America, said in the release. “Equally important to the industry’s recovery is the consumer’s comfort level with dining in at a restaurant now.”

Major full-service chain restaurant transaction declines improved by 9 points in the week ending May 17, down -49% versus a year ago compared to a -58% decline prior week from a year ago. The effect of restaurant openings is readily apparent when comparing states with and without restrictions. Full-service restaurants in states where on-premise dining was permitted to reopen as of May 10 improved 13 percentage points in the week ending May 17, down -33% versus a year ago compared to -46% in the prior week from a year ago. Full-service restaurants in open states have a 22 percentage point performance advantage over the remainder of the country.