Restaurant industry continues to go hungry

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Restaurant owners don’t appear to be getting any break from the recession.

The National Restaurant Assn. reports that the industry’s performance continued to decline in August, the latest period for which it has data.

The association’s Restaurant Performance Index – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 97.9 in August, down 0.2% from July and its third decline in the last four months, the trade group said.

The group’s index is based on the responses to the National Restaurant Assn.’s Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey that asks about such economic indicators as sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures.

The survey found that restaurants continued to suffer from deteriorating sales and traffic levels in August. Only 17% of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between August 2008 and August 2009. That is down from the 26% who reported a sales gain in July and the lowest reading in the seven-year history of the index. More than two-thirds, or 68%, of operators reported a same-store sales decline in August, up from 58% who reported negative sales in July.

Customer traffic levels also dropped off in August. Only 15% of restaurant operators reported an increase in customer traffic between August 2008 and August 2009, the trade group said. That’s down from 23% who reported higher traffic in July.

-- Jerry Hirsch
Twitter.com/LATimesJerry