Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the restaurant industry sales had surpassed grocery sales for the first time in history. Accounting for approximately 15% of all retail spending in Q1 2016, restaurants are making a strong return in both shopping centers and downtowns. A lot of this growth can be attributed to fundamental, cross-generational consumer shifts and also macro-economic changes. About 80% of consumers today find that dining out with family and friends is a better use of their leisure time than cooking and cleaning up, according to an NRA Restaurant Industry survey, and about 9 in 10 consumers say they enjoy going to restaurants.
ICSC and JLL recently put together an extensive report on the food and beverage industry that clearly outlines some of the food service categories popular today. I created the little table below which aggregates some of the information presented in the report to help downtown associations understand the various types of restaurants and food service operators, their customer bases, trading periods and dwell times, so that they are better equipped to assess current food service offerings and can make informed decisions on retaining and attracting new food operators to their downtown mix.
Read the full LOA blog post here!