The number of U.S. restaurants declined by -1 percent, or a loss of 5,551 restaurants, from a year ago, according to a fall 2010 restaurant census conducted by the NPD Group.
NPD's Fall 2010 ReCount, which is a census of commercial restaurant locations in the U.S. compiled in the spring and fall each year, showed that independent restaurant units dropped by -2 percent compared to a year ago, and chain counts were flat.
“These past two years have been particularly tough for independents, which don’t have the resources to compete with the chains,” says Greg Starzynski, director of product development-foodservice at NPD. “Over the past few years we've lost several thousand independent restaurants."
The number of quick-service restaurants declined by -1 percent, or 2,122 units. Full-service restaurant units, which includes the casual dining, mid-scale, and fine dining segments, also experienced a unit loss of -1 percent, or 3,429 units.
|
Segment
|
System Type
|
Fall 2009
|
Fall 2010
|
PCYA*
|
|
TOTAL REST
|
ALL
|
584653
|
579102
|
-1%
|
|
|
CHAINS
|
267499
|
267408
|
0%
|
|
|
INDEPENDENTS
|
317154
|
311694
|
-2%
|
|
Quick Service Restaurants
|
ALL
|
307966
|
305844
|
-1%
|
|
Full Service Restaurants
|
ALL
|
276687
|
273258
|
-1%
|
*Percent Change from a year ago Source: The NPD Group/ReCount®, Fall 2010
According to the NPD Group’s CREST, which continually tracks consumer usage of commercial and non-commercial foodservice outlets, restaurant traffic has been down since January 2009. For year ending November 2010, U.S. restaurant traffic declined by -1 percent compared to a year ago. However, this is an improvement over the -3 percent declines in visits for year ending November 2009 compared to the prior year.
