Food & Beverage

As COVID-19 cases grow, restaurant transactions fall

Photo: iStock

July 7, 2020

For the second week, previous signs of recovering recovery for U.S. restaurants are wavering as the number of COVID-19 cases grows nationally. For the last full week of June, major U.S. chain total customer transactions were down 14% versus the same week a year ago, while such transactions fell 13% for the previous week versus the previous year's week, according to NPD Group.

The company based its findings on a weekly review of transactions for 72 brands of all service categories nationally and said that rising pandemic cases has prompted many jurisdictions to either delay reopenings or reinstate dine-in restrictions.

In Texas, for example, restaurants may continue to offer dine-in services, but capacity is rolled back from 75% to 50%. California announced last week the closing of its nearly 86,000 restaurants to on-premise dining.

Though full-service brands are hardest hit by these actions, customer transactions at major QSR chains still fell 13% compared to the same week last year, which is also down a point from the previous week.

"It's apparent that the road to recovery is going to be a challenging one for the U.S. restaurant industry," David Portalatin, NPD food industry advisor, said in the release. "Consumer demand for restaurant dining is there as well as a want for normalcy, but there is nothing normal about this situation."