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Source: www.pizzamarketplace.com, June 2020

For the first time since the week of April 5-12, customer restaurant transactions failed to improve in year-over-year trend numbers. In fact, customer transactions at major U.S. restaurant chains fell 13% for the week ending on June 21, versus the same week last year. This is slightly worse then the previous week when such transactions fell just 12% versus the same week the previous year, according to The NPD Group, which tracks the weekly information.

The decline is attributed to a surge in COVID-19 cases in several states, even during Father’s Day, which the company said tends to be more of a home-based event than Mother’s Day.

With new COVID-19 cases suddenly surging across multiple states, some of the states that have been reporting the highest number of new cases experienced steeper declines in major restaurant chain customer transactions for the week that ended June 21. For instance, following a surge in cases in Arizona, that state saw a five-point decline in year-over-year transactions for the week, according to NPD. The tracking covered 72 quick service, fast casual, midscale and casual dining chains, the company said.

Restaurant transactions in Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina — all of which reported spikes in COVID cases — fell two points, four point and five points, respectively. Customer transactions in California and Texas, both of which have a large number of restaurants, were flat compared to prior week.

“The U.S. restaurant industry’s road to recovery is going to have some bumps along the way,” David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor said in the release. “The pandemic isn’t over and, as often mentioned, is ‘unprecedented,’ so there is no road map. The foodservice industry is solidly in the restart phase as restaurants begin to reopen on-premise operations, adopt and implement new procedures and protocols, and keep plans fluid because things could change quickly.”

The NPD Group Inc. has offices in 27 cities globally and covers trends in the restaurant industry, among many others.