CHICAGO—With more consumers eating at home these days, the restaurant industry has suffered. According to a new report from NPD Group, “Restaurant Industry... What to Expect When Economic Recovery Begins,” restaurants will not see a positive upswing in visits until the second half of 2010.
“Historically, the restaurant industry neither leads the economy into or out of periods of economic downturns,” says Bonnie Riggs, NPD’s restaurant industry analyst and author of the report. “This recession is generally believed to be more severe than those in recent history, and this time the industry not only realized traffic losses, consumer spending declined as well. This is the first time since NPD began tracking that the industry realized a fall off in dollars spent at restaurants.”