The Restaurant Performance Index maintained by the National Restaurant Association rose for the third month in a row in October, stayed above the 100 level that signals market expansion for the second consecutive month and reached its highest level since September 2007. In other words, it was a pretty good month for the restaurant industry…

In preparation for our annual market-forecast articles in next month’s Foodservice Equipment Reports, we asked our friends Joe Pawlak, v.p. at Technomic Inc., and Hudson Riehle, senior v.p. of the National Restaurant Association’s Research and Knowledge Group, for their outlooks on how the foodservice market will fare next year. Both help oversee their organizations’ annual…

As we headed off to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend last week, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor, and Thomson Reuters/The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers gave us some new data for which to be thankful. Personal income in the U.S. grew half a percentage point in October, unadjusted for inflation, following a flat…

Overall state tax revenues grew 2.3% in the second quarter 2010, compared with the same quarter last year, according to the latest study from the Rockefeller Institute of Government. It was the second consecutive quarter of overall growth in state tax revenues, following five quarters of declines beginning the fourth quarter ’08. Revenues rose 2.5%…

Many observers of the foodservice market are concerned about the potential impact of rising food and other commodity prices on the nascent recovery in foodservice operator sales. As Joe Pawlak, v.p. at Technomic Inc., told us last week, “There is increasing concern on commodity pricing going forward, which could change the game tremendously, as value…

And now for the long-term picture. As we reported last issue, the consensus forecast for real growth of gross domestic product in the U.S. next year, according to the economists surveyed monthly by Blue Chip Economic Indicators, is a moderate 2.5%, even slower than this year’s 2.7% forecast. You might be interested to know that…

The Business Barometer maintained by the Manufacturers’ Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry improved again in the third quarter, posting a modest 1.5% decline versus the third quarter 2009. While the index recorded contracting sales for the 11th consecutive quarter, the number was the third consecutive quarter of improvement. The Barometer bottomed out in the…

A number of restaurant-activity indicators released during the past couple weeks show a pronounced positive trend for commercial foodservice. Data from The NPD Group on restaurant traffic, First Data, which tracks credit- and debit-card transactions and Knapp-Track, which follows same-store sales, show upward movement. Combined, the reports may indicate the market has finally, clearly turned.…

Just after we uploaded last issue’s

The forecasts for continued slow growth of the U.S. economy and for a painfully slow recovery of employment are holding. The more than 50 macroeconomic forecasting groups surveyed monthly by Blue Chip Economic Indicators left their consensus forecasts for real growth of gross domestic product unchanged at 2.7% this year and 2.5% in 2011. It…