sales

Financing

Citing weak industry traffic, Technomic cuts its 2024 restaurant sales forecast

The data firm, a sister company of Restaurant Business, has revised down its sales expectations by 1.5 percentage points. Can a value war bring some of that traffic back?

Operations

Batten down the hatches for more severe weather ahead

The storms that dampened restaurant traffic during Q1 were a preview of what the industry can expect through the remainder of 2024, though with more heat, wind and rain, according to forecasters.

Price-conscious consumers began to shift away from sit-down restaurants in 2023 after embracing them a year earlier. That made growth difficult to come by.

Reality Check: Restaurants will be competing for attention this year with the Summer Games and political advertising. It could be a test of whether digital marketing, and loyalty programs in particular, can deliver on their promise.

Reality Check: The first three months of 2024 weren’t easy on restaurant chains, but spin-doctoring proved to be. Indeed, there must have been a run on shovels.

A focus on value and operations is helping both sales and profits at the casual-dining chain.

Data from Placer.ai shows that full-service traffic perked up in March after a difficult end to the year.

According to data from Placer.ai, traffic at restaurants has lagged that of grocers, superstores and convenience stores since the pandemic.

Technomic Top 500: Here are the country's 10 largest restaurant chains by sales, according to the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.

Was it weather? Or was it prices? Either way, fast-food restaurants have started the year off on the wrong foot, according to traffic data.

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