Restaurant traffic fell 1% for U.S. Hispanics last year, as higher than average unemployment as well as demographic differences among the ethnic group led to a loss of 86 million visits, according to data from The NPD Group’s “CREST Hispanic.” For the country as a whole, traffic rose 1% last year.In contrast, even though their…

If you just saw the top line numbers for retail sales and the Producer Price Index, reported by the Bureau of the Census on April 12, you may have thought sales and wholesale prices fell in March. In fact, foodservice and drinking place sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% compared with February, the first gain…

While restaurant traffic involving adults rose 1% in 2012, thanks mostly to a gain in breakfast occasions, visits by parties with children remained flat last year, according to The NPD Group. Visits by parties with kids have been flat for two consecutive years after declines from’08 to ’10. Because adult-only visits account for 68% of…

Consumer sentiment fell sharply in the preliminary April reading by Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, surprising many economists. Combined with the decline in overall retail sales, the decline had forecasters worrying again about the negative impact of the payroll tax increase and the cutbacks in federal spending. The preliminary April Consumer Sentiment Index…

Behind the latest round of forecasts from the 50 economic groups surveyed each month by Blue Chip Economic Indicators is a bit of good news for foodservice operators: Disposable personal income growth should begin to improve, beginning in the second quarter of this year and on an annual basis, growing 2.5% in 2014, the best…

Better than expected fourth-quarter 2012 results and a distinct softening of foodservice operator sales in the first quarter of 2013 has prompted Foodservice Equipment Reports to revise its forecasts of the foodservice equipment and supplies market. With the seven publicly reporting E&S companies posting 3% sales growth in the fourth quarter and the MAFSI Barometer,…

Same-store sales and traffic took a beating in February, according to the latest tracking data from The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index, released Mar. 29. The overall index fell 0.8 point to 99.9, below the 100 level separating expansion from contraction. It was the fourth month in the last five that the index has…

Restaurant chains’ sales rebounded in 2012, according to preliminary data from Technomic Inc.’s annual “Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report,” released March 21. Combined system-wide sales for the 500 concepts rose 4.9%. The year was a marked improvement over 2011, when sales for the Top 500 managed only a 3.5% gain. In comparison, Technomic released a…

According to the 50 econometric groups surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators each month, better times are indeed ahead. While in the March survey the group kept their 2013 consensus forecast at 1.9% growth of real gross domestic product and lowered the 2014 forecast a bit to 2.7%, they have maintained their long-range forecasts through…

Combined revenues for seven publicly reporting foodservice equipment and supplies companies grew 3% in the fourth quarter of 2012. But the overall gain for the calendar year was only 2.2%, as flat sales in the second and third quarters, especially among the equipment-oriented companies, depressed growth. Sales declines in Europe, and to a lesser extent…