By Katie David I n a recent report from The NPD Group, which is a market research company that operates in 20 coun- tries, conducting approximately 12 million consumer interviews a year while monitoring consumer purchase data from over 165,000 stores, shows that the number of restaurants open for business in the U.S. dropped by 2 percent as compared to a year ago. This seems like a surprising turn of events given that increased need to save time with quick meals, but with shaky economic times where many are worrying about reducing expenses people are going out less to eat. Greg Starzynski, the director of product management for NPD Foodservice said, “This is the most significant drop in total U.S. restaurant counts since the recession.” Most are pushing the blame on a shaken economy, soaring costs of education for millennial and a deep uncertainty of what is to come. The restaurant industry saw a decline in restaurant density, which is the number of restaurants available per million population, decrease to its lowest level in 10 years, according to data based on NPD’s Report.
The report shows that independent restaurants offering full service took the hardest hit with customer traffic falling 4 percent and restaurant density declining over 11 percent moving from 1132 to 1002 units per million over the last decade according NPD data. It was not all bad news for the restaurant industry as The NPD Report shows that people are still looking for the quick and easy with the fast casual quick service segment, which represents 80 percent of total industry traffic, showing growth increasing its restaurant units by 7 percent to 23,798. Keeping on this trend, density of chain restaurants also saw increases over 7 percent moving from 860 to 922 over the last decade. Despite promising numbers in the restaurant industry for the fast casual segment, The NPD’s report may signal continued trouble for the industry overall with Starzynski saying, “If consumers continue to reduce their restaurant visits, we expect the number and density of restaurant units will continue to decline in response to the lower demand.” This is not good news for those in the restaurant business or foodies looking for great new places to eat.
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MARCH 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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