Since the announcement of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the area surrounding Trump Tower on 5th Avenue and East 56th Street in New York City has become quite the security stronghold. Traffic blocks, security checkpoints, bag searches, police, and canine troops are all over the already busy shopping and business district, posing a threat to local businesses. At Avero, we wanted to understand how all this has specifically affected restaurants in the area.
With access to over 8,000 restaurants’ data, many of which are in New York City, we looked at the change in year-over-year same-store-sales for 96 restaurants in the immediate area surrounding Trump Tower. Contrary to the belief that restaurant sales have been negatively affected, our sample shows that sales have actually increased by 2.78%. This increase could still be related to Trump’s victory, not because of the security but because of the increased pedestrian traffic. Protesting works up an appetite!
Knowing this, we wanted to dig deeper and examine the relationship between distance from Trump Tower and effect on restaurant sales. We found a positive relationship between distance from Trump Tower and change in year-over-year same-store-sales; as the distance from Trump Tower increases, sales increase. It appears that restaurants caught in the middle of the security chaos have been struggling, but those slightly farther away have been able to take advantage of added business from protesters.
While Trump’s presidential victory has brought additional craziness to an already hectic midtown Manhattan, it has not hurt local businesses as much as some may think. Hopefully this upward trend in sales can continue throughout the holidays and across other areas of the city, but Avero will be sure to keep track through our monthly index.
Check out the Election Index here and the October 2016 Index here!
