Warm weather, school breaks, and summer vacations all spell higher sales for low average ticket restaurants like quick serve hot dog and ice cream stands. The Avero Index reveals that restaurants with an average ticket under $25 saw an increase in gross sales of 2 percent and an increase in covers of 5 percent, marking considerable growth in traffic to these restaurants compared with last year.
Restaurants nationwide also saw a 0.7 percent increase in sales in June, marking the ninth straight month of improved year-over-year restaurant sales. Across the seven cities analyzed by the Avero Index, all but two, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, saw improved sales this June. See below for more info on the cities we’ve reported on last month.
Looking at meal period and menu mix breakdown, breakfast sales were up slightly at a 1 percent increase, with a four percent increase in covers compared to last month. But the most dramatic increase in June was in desserts, which continue to show strong performance with a 13 percent increase. Beer, on the other hand, had the lowest performance with a drop in gross sales of 8 percent and quantity of beer orders down 7 percent.
Las Vegas:
Las Vegas restaurants had a slight loss in sales this June compared to 2017 of -1.6 percent. Kong Haboon, restaurant manager of Tao Asian Bistro in Las Vegas, said, “During the summer months [restaurants in Vegas] get extremely slow till about the middle of August.” It seems the trend of decreased restaurant business in Las Vegas during the hot summer months has already begun and is visible in this June’s numbers.
New York City:
New York City continues to show strong restaurant sales in 2018. This June, sales rose 0.6 percent above last June’s sales. Weekend sales showed more growth with a 1.2 percent increase, versus the weekday sales increase of only 0.2 percent.
Updated through June 30, 2018
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