News

The weather effect: Report tracks weather trends related to dining traffic

July 12, 2019

Rain tends to spawn traffic at noodle and ramen QSRs, while so-called "indulgent" brands — along the lines of bakeries and frozen yogurt shops — are nearly always left with lighter tills when precipitation falls. 

Those are just two of the findings in a joint insights report from tech platform, Foursquare, in partnership with weather-tracking company, AccuWeather, on summer dining trends affected by weather, a news release said. Warmer temperatures, rain and snow or just bone-chilling cold all — as restaurateurs know too well — have noted affects on restaurant traffic and sales, and the report tries to hone in on some of those weather-related trends when they occur in major U.S. cities. The study focused on weather-related dining patterns in New York City, Chicago and Atlanta. 

The report is the result of data collected from Foursquare's panel of 13 million U.S. users, combined with AccuWeather's information on the weather that was. Among the findings, some that might seem likely, including trends showing that people dine out more on cooler summer and fall days, as well as warmer winter and spring days. Similarly, dining business typically suffers a bit on colder winter and spring dates and more sweltering summer and fall days.

Other findings, however, were more eye-opening, including: 

• QSRs are typically less impacted by weather than casual dining venues. 
• In the fall, rain has only a minimal influence on restaurant traffic. 
• Very hot days align with some of the best traffic in barbecue and seafood brands. 
• Coffee shop brands see slightly more traffic on very hot days, but less when it rains, snows or get really cold. 
• New York diners are influenced the most by heavy rain vis-à-vis eating out.