Restaurant Sales Are Off to a Strong December Start, Says Black Box

Restaurant sales have started on the right foot this month, according to Black Box Financial Intelligence’s latest “Restaurant Industry Performance Pulse.”

According to the report, the first week of December posted stronger sales growth than the monthly sales growth reported for August, September and October—though it was 2 percentage points lower than the strongest week in November.

During the week, the year-over-year check average grew by 7%, and the segments seeing the largest year-over-year check growth were fine dining, family dining and fast casual. At 6.2%, casual dining was the segment with the smallest check growth during the week.

While the industry is showing promise overall, dine-in sales still are struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to the report. Limited-service restaurants are experiencing much steeper losses than those in full service, and in full service, the loss in alcoholic beverage sales during the week was proportional to the decline in dine-in sales.

The regions with the strongest growth during the week were the Southeast, Southwest and West. The regions with the weakest sales growth were the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New York-New Jersey.