A survey from the National Restaurant Association seems to think so. The graphic with this post is the trade group’s restaurant performance index since July 2002, and the downward curve at the far right is not good news for the restaurant business.
Most of the numbers in the report, which track current and future sales, customer traffic and the like, are at four- and five-year lows. Six out of the eight indicators declined in March, according to the group, which said the data signified both a slowdown in current industry performance as well as a weakening in the outlook for the industry in the coming months.
The report is not broken down by region, so we may miss the worst of this, just as we have missed the worst of the housing slump. But I do know, from talking to my students at the Cordon Bleu who work in local restaurants, that business has been better.
