Avero works with more than 6,000 restaurants around the world, which means we have unique insight into key restaurant industry trends. This week we wanted to look at how restaurants were affected by Easter Sunday, especially because it was so early this year. We found that restaurants that remained open on Easter Sunday saw a modest 1.3% year-over-year sales increase, but restaurants that closed caused an overall 16.2% decrease in year-over-year restaurant sales.
On the national level, Easter Sunday restaurant sales have been on the decline. While sales were up 9.9% in 2014 compared to 2013, they were only up 1% in 2015 compared to 2014, and down a whopping 16.2% in 2016 compared to 2015. Digging a little deeper into the data, we noticed that more restaurants (approximately 15%) were actually closed on Easter Sunday this year compared to last year. Does this mean Easter has become more of an eating in than going out holiday? What about Sundays in general?
With a downward trend almost across the board, it appears the last few Sundays before Easter this year were not as successful for restaurants in comparison to the same Sundays in 2015, with Easter Sunday being the most drastically different. Was it the same story in 2015?
Easter was approximately one week later in 2015, and the previous Sunday year-over-year sales were a bit better in 2015 compared to 2014 than in 2016 compared to 2015, with modest increases each Sunday compared to the previous year but modest decreases from week to week.
In conclusion, if your restaurant stayed open this Easter Sunday your business remained steady with year-over-year gross sales increasing by 1.3%. However, the large number of restaurants closing on Easter this year led to a 16.2% overall same-store sales decline.
What happened in your restaurant this Easter, and what do you think will happen with Easter Sunday 2017? Let us know!
