Despite slow growth in wages and hours, American consumers are finally beginning to believe their income prospects are improving, according the latest gauge of consumer confidence from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan and The Conference Board. The Consumer Sentiment Index from UM hit 84.6 in September, up from 82.5 in August, its second highest reading in…

Foodservice operators, who have been dealing with strong increases in wholesale food prices, caught a bit of a break in August, according to Producer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average whole prices fell 0.1% in August, only the second month this year that prices have fallen. Even beef and pork prices,…

Restaurant visits were flat in the second quarter compared with the same quarter in 2013, the NPD Group has reported. Still, the performance represents improvement following 1% traffic declines in the fourth quarter 2014 and the first quarter this year. Chain restaurants continued to take share from independents, the data show. Visits to major chains,…

As the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has predicted for almost two years, the front-loading impact of taxpayers moving capital gains and dividends into 2012 in anticipation of the so-called fiscal cliff tax hikes has created a tax collection trough for state governments. Overall state tax collections fell 0.3% in the first quarter, compared…

Major economists remain optimistic about the U.S. economy during the next 18 months, according to the latest consensus forecasts from Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The 50 leading economic groups polled monthly by Blue Chip foresee rising growth rates for disposable personal income and consumer spending the rest of this year and in 2015. They also…

In spite of a decent gain in traffic in July, six of the components of the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index fell during the month, including both indicators of capital spending. Still, the overall index held at 101, well above the 100 level that signals the tipping point between expansion and contraction. It was…

The number of net restaurant units grew by less than 1% for the year ended March 31, according to data from The NPD Group’s biannual ReCount restaurant census. The market added 5,002 net units to reach 635,494. Almost 80% of the new units were chain restaurants, a growth of 1.3%. Independent operators, who control 351,359…

The rise in food prices continued in July as prices at the wholesale level rose another 1.1% during the month, the sixth consecutive increase during the past seven months. For the past 12 months, prices at the wholesale level, as computed by the National Restaurant Association from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price data,…

Following a weather-related slowdown in the first quarter 2014, same-store sales at Canadian restaurants improved dramatically in the second quarter, according to the latest Restaurant Outlook Survey from Restaurants Canada, the Canadian foodservice association. But rising costs for food, labor and credit-card processing also are biting into operator margins. Additionally, respondents cite a lack of…

Traffic counts remain the problem for restaurant operators in the U.S., as the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index fell in June. Surveyed operators were also a bit less optimistic about the next six months in the June survey, as all four Expectation components fell. In fact, the only component that held steady was that…