For the week ending November 8th, restaurant comp sales for the week were the second-worst experienced by the industry since late August (the worst week was the week ending November 1, which was negatively impacted by Halloween being on a Saturday).
From Black Box:
- The poor sales results can most likely be attributed to the fact that the general election took place during the week.
- While the industry experienced poor sales results, limited-service performance improved compared to comp sales two weeks ago (better for our LONG casual dining call).
- Quick service and fast casual both improved their comp sales performance during the week.
- Fine dining and upscale casual saw the biggest drops in comp sales performance than where they were two weeks ago. This is also reminiscent of the pandemic's first months when these segments saw the biggest drops in sales performance.
- Year–over–year growth in off-premise sales spiked up during the week. Off-premise sales growth during the week was the highest in the last 9 weeks for limited service and the last 6 weeks for full-service restaurants. (Casual Dining is in a very different position to deal with the current wave of cases.)
- Thirty-four states saw their restaurant year–over–year comp sales worsen during the last 2 weeks. The hardest hit states were Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Vermont, Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
- The states that improved their comp sales the most in the last 2 weeks were: South Dakota, Montana, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland, Delaware, Minnesota, Alabama, and Louisiana. Also, among the most improved in the District of Columbia.
