Only China and Canada recorded significant increases in restaurant visits in the third quarter of last year, according to data from the NPD Group. Six of the 10 markets in which NPD charts foodservice activity—Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain—recorded declines. Traffic was flat in the United Kingdom and U.S. Continuing economic struggles and…

Employment grew by 157,000 jobs in January, pretty much in line with economists’ expectations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, Feb. 1. Also on Friday, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers final reading on Consumer Sentiment came in a bit ahead of expectations, rising to 73.8, as consumers absorbed the impact of…

We (and lots of other observers) were wrong. Most of us expected consumers would gain back a bit of their confidence from the AmericanTaxpayer Relief Act passed just after the New Year. But no. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell again in the January preliminary reading released last Friday, Jan. 18. The…

It being a new year, we thought we’d share the current macroeconomic forecasts from Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The 50 major economic forecasting groups polled monthly by Blue Chip raised their consensus forecast for real growth of gross domestic product in the U.S. this year by a tick to 2% in the early January survey.…

The price-increase news for foodservice operators in December was actually pretty good. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported wholesale food prices at all three levels of the wholesale chain fell during the month. Finished foods were down 0.9% compared to November, intermediate foods and feeds also fell 0.9% and crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs prices dropped…

It’s been a very tough slog for foodservice operators the past two years in Britain. The austerity regime of tax increases and benefit cuts put in place by the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat government has cut consumers’ disposable income and confidence, led to higher unemployment and kept interest rates at rock bottom. But Peter Backman, managing…

The anticipated increase in the capital gains tax at the federal level combined with generational factors, several years of depressed values, and record low-interest rates to prompt a rash of mergers and acquisitions by foodservice equipment and supplies manufacturers and distributors in the last two months of 2012. A tally of the noteworthy deals for…

Unless you spent the holidays on another planet or at least on a remote island paradise with no media access, you are aware that Congress and the Obama Administration cobbled together in early January a package that made permanent the Bush-era income tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans. This will almost certainly reverse,…

The two indicators in the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index that track recent and future capital spending by restaurant operators took big hits in December, even as other measures in the index rose, pushing up the overall index by half a point. It now rests at 99.9, just shy of the 100 level that…