In May, Black Box is reporting that May overall same-store sales for the industry improved 15% to -39.5% (by the last week of the month (the week ending May 24), same-store sales growth for the sector was -33%, the second consecutive week sales growth was better than -40%). Traffic improved 14% to -41.2% (traffic was down by less than 40% during the last two weeks of May.)
Not surprisingly, Limited-Service is performing better than full service, although the opening of dining rooms in some states is helping full-service brands gain incremental sales. Family dining and fine dining were hit the hardest from dining room closures, but family dining was able to improve same-store sales by 15%, but are still at -70% for May.
The Southeast region continues to perform the best in terms of same-store sales growth, at -19.7% during the month, compared to -43.3% in April. Traffic for the region also improved to -25.3% compared to -45.4% in April. The Southwest, Mountain Plains, and Florida also achieved same-store sales greater than -35% in May. This will be interesting to see what happens, give the current rate of growth of new cases in the region. The regions that continue to struggle are also those with the highest number of COVID cases, including California, New York-New Jersey, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Western region.
Interestingly, in April, only 5% of limited-service restaurants and 36% of full-service had laid-off employees. By May, almost a third of limited service companies and over 70% of full-service companies had to lay off employees. Operators expect 25% of furloughed employees, and 67% of laid-off employees will not return to work at their restaurants.
DINE-IN SALES
At the end of May, dine-in represented 40% of all sales in full-service at the national level. As a comparison, dine-in was less than 6% during the last week of April. In Texas, dine-in represented 56% of all full-service sales by the last week of May, despite dining rooms being open at just 50% capacity. In the case of Georgia, dine-in sales were similar at 57%.
OFF-PREMISE SALES
As dining rooms reopen, sales growth in off-premise channels is starting to show evidence of a slowdown. Year–over–year sales growth in off-premise was 155% vs. 208% reported for the last week of April.
