Coverage

Data out today from the U.S. Census shows that restaurants’ market share (with grocery stores making up the other component) was 51.6% in March 2022. This was -10 basis points sequentially lower than February 2022’s 51.7% figure. But it was also modestly higher than restaurants’ full-year 2021 market share of 50.4%.

Earlier today (Wednesday, April 13th), we learned that the BlackBox Index of same-store sales for March 2022 — importantly, these data points are on a one-year basis — was up by +7.2%, with traffic off by -1.7%.

With this report, we update our data-driven Kalinowski Restaurant Industry Index for Q1 to +7.1%. On a three-year (pre-pandemic) basis, this is approximately +14.6%. The first quarter of 2022 had many dips and undulations in terms of same-store sales trends. January 2022 was hampered by labor availability issues that were widespread across the industry. February 2022 fared meaningfully better, as Covid (Omicron) cases rapidly declined in the U.S., and (in a related matter) as labor-availability challenges lessened. However, March 2022 saw trends weaken again, in part due to lapping the massive $500 billion stimulus from one year ago.