Data Suggests A Sliver Of Good News In Restaurant Space

Black Box Intelligence continues to collect data weekly from restaurants throughout the country. The company is using the information to detail the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the restaurant industry.

Here's the latest based on last week's data:

• Since the negative effect of Covid-19 reached a national scale mid-March, the week ending April 5 was the best for restaurants based on comp sales growth. There are some signs that the sales decline may have reached bottom in the last few weeks and the industry is now experiencing some slow improvement.
• Comp sales for the industry were -62.3% for the week ending April 5, which represented a small 4.7 percentage point improvement from the previous week's results.
• The pattern of diverging trends in guest check growth continues. Average guest check for limited service brands continues to grow rapidly year over year, while guest checks for full-service brands are experiencing a sharp drop.
• The biggest declines in comp sales continue to be in fine dining and family dining; both segments experienced comp sales declines worse than -80% during the week.
• The late night and lunch day parts experienced the biggest declines in comp sales this week (both worse than -80%). The only day part with comp sales better than -70% was mid-afternoon (-64.7%).
• Pizza concepts continue to experience the smallest decline in comp sales, but there is an encouraging sign in the fact that all cuisine types tracked by Black Box Intelligence had comp sales declining at a lower pace during the last week.
• The average transaction amount for consumers ordering from full-service restaurants on third party delivery (3PD) is up 19.2% compared to the same week last year.
• There were twice as many consumers ordering from full-service restaurants through 3PD compared to the same week last year.
• Most companies (67%) have put some of their employees on furlough in response to Covid-19; the percentage that have laid-off employees is much lower at 22%.
• The percentage of restaurant companies that now offer paid sick leave for their hourly employees increased to 67%; the percentage is even higher for restaurant managers.
• On average, companies that are offering extended benefits to their separated employees are providing an additional 8 weeks of health benefit coverage. Free or discounted meals are extended for 9-10 weeks at the time of separation.