Skip to footer

Restaurant growth sluggish in the US

The total number of US restaurants stood at 635,494 in its Spring 2014 count. That’s flat compared with the 633,043 count for Fall 2013 and shows growth of just 0.8 percent since the Spring 2013 census.

|
Steak 'n Shake/PrNewsFoto/File
Customers order at the Steak 'n Shake signature restaurant in New York. Restaurant growth was flat in the US in the second quarter of 2012.

The NPD Group says the total number of U.S. restaurants stood at 635,494 in its Spring (March) 2014 count. That’s flat compared with the 633,043 count for Fall 2013 and shows growth of just 0.8% since the Spring 2013 census.

The 351,359 independent restaurants in the Spring 2014 count account for 55.3% of the total. That’s down slightly from 55.5% in Spring 2013 but up a bit from a 54.7% share in Spring 2012. NPD says the number of independents declined by 71 since last fall but is up 0.4% (1,284) compared with a year ago

Chain restaurants’ share of the total number of restaurants stands at 44.7%. NPD says the number of chains has risen by 3,718 over the past year while independents have added 1,284 restaurants since the Spring 2013 count. Since Spring 2012, however, the number of independent restaurants has increased by 13,654; chain restaurants have increased by just 7,380.

Customer visits to major chain restaurants was flat for the 12 months ended June 2014, NPD says. Traffic for independents has dipped 1% over that period.

Quick-service restaurants continue to grow in number while the full-service category drifts lower. NPD counted 337,667 QSRs, a 2% gain from a year ago, but the 297,827 full-service restaurants was down 2,156 or 2% from Spring 2013.

For the year ended June 2014, NPD says the total number of consumer restaurant visits was flat compared with the previous year. QSR traffic was flat but casual-dining visits were down 3% and midscale restaurants saw a 4% decline.

Said Greg Starzynski, director-product management, NPD Foodservice: “Prior to the recession when industry traffic was strong and money was more available, the industry expanded units rapidly but in today’s market unit growth must be a calculated risk.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Restaurant growth sluggish in the US
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2014/0815/Restaurant-growth-sluggish-in-the-US
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe