Wholesale food prices rose again in February at both the final and intermediate demand stages, according to Producer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released March 14. Wholesale food prices at the final demand level rose 0.6%, following a 1% jump in January. Food prices at the final demand stage fell four…

What’s surprising about January’s Restaurant Performance Index from the National Restaurant Association is how little the severe winter weather in much of the country affected sales and traffic. The overall index rose 0.2 point to 100.7, the 11th consecutive month the RPI has exceed 100, the tipping point between expansion and contraction. Meanwhile, the indicator…

The number of restaurant units in the U.S. grew at only a 0.7% pace for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2013, according to data from The NPD Group’s biannual ReCount census, released Feb. 26. The total number of commercial restaurants grew in net terms by 4,179 units during the period to a total of…

Following five months of flat or negative changes, wholesale food prices jumped significantly in January at both the final and intermediate demand stages, according to Producer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Feb. 19. Wholesale food prices at the final demand level rose 1% after falling four of the last five…

Maybe the heating bills haven’t shown up yet, but the severe winter weather in many parts of the country and a couple of weak jobs growth reports don’t seem to be dampening consumer confidence very much, if at all. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index actually ticked up slightly to 81.6 in the…

Several states whose economies and restaurant sales were most affected by the housing crash during the Great Recession are forecast to post some of the strongest growth in restaurant sales this year, according to the National Restaurant Association. The group’s state-by-state and regional forecasts, part of its 2014 Restaurant Industry Forecast released in January, predicts…

The January and mid-February readings on consumer confidence from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan and The Conference Board indicated that consumers remain reasonably optimistic about the economy and their financial prospects. But many analysts, including Richard Curtin, the UM Surveys of Consumers chief economist, are worried about the negative impact on consumers’ finances of the brutal…

The growth trajectory of the fast-casual segment is truly quite remarkable, especially given an era of slow or flat growth in traffic and sales for most of the industry. New data from The NPD Group’s CREST studies released Feb. 5 show the segment grew traffic 6% in 2013 while spending at such concepts spiked 10%.…

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy created only 113,000 net new non-farm payroll jobs in January, the second straight month of slow gains, following December’s revised figure of 75,000. Still, many economists are discounting the slowdown—jobs growth averaged a revised 193,500 jobs a month in 2013—blaming the inclement…

Manufacturers’ reps expect sales of foodservice equipment and supplies to increase 4.9% this year in the U.S. and Canada compared with 2013, according to a new expanded Market Forecast Report released by the Manufacturers’ Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry. It’s the strongest annual gain forecast by the reps since the MAFSI Barometer—the group’s trending…