Fried chicken, no tipping, increased minimum wages, oh my! Before we leap into a new year of restaurant trends, let’s take an in-depth look at the 2015 Year in Review Avero Index to see exactly what transpired last year in the national, New York and Las Vegas restaurant markets.
Las Vegas restaurant sales grew 1.9% in 2015 compared to 2014. Our hospitality industry experts at Avero believe this growth could be due to a notable increase in convention attendance. Las Vegas restaurants also saw significant increases in higher average checks (4.5%) and in the breakfast and lunch meal periods (2.7%), but a significant decrease in dinner and late-night sales (-4.4%).
New York restaurants actually saw negative growth in 2015 compared to 2014 (0.8%). The only positive growth areas were surprisingly in the Midtown neighborhood (1.2%) and in the breakfast and lunch meal periods (a mere 0.2%), while there was a significant decrease in dinner and late-night sales (-3.6%). Apparently, people in Las Vegas and New York dined out for dinner and late-night less in 2015 than in 2014. These trends are somewhat perplexing to our industry experts, but we believe East Coast weather was likely a culprit – cold weather lasting through April and abnormally warm weather throughout the fall may just have thrown everyone off.
See more insights from the December 2015 Avero Index!
