Valentine’s Day Helps Boost Restaurant Sales into Positive Growth Territory

After weeks of negative sales growth, the restaurant industry saw some improvement for the week ending Feb. 20, according to Black Box Financial Intelligence’s weekly Restaurant Industry Performance Pulse.

The latest report says sales growth jumped significantly during the week, which included Valentine’s Day, posting the industry’s second-best sales growth rate in over two years. Despite the favorable boost from the holiday, which wasn’t included in the comparable week in 2020, traffic growth remained negative, improving less than half the improvement seen in sales growth.

Sales during the first three weeks of February marked an improvement over January’s sales growth and returned the industry to positive growth territory. Still, the report notes that the average sales growth remains significantly slower than it was during last year’s peaks, between June and November.

Overall, all industry segments have improved their sales growth month to date compared to January. Through the first three weeks of the month, the best-performing segments were fine dining, fast casual and quick service.

The best-performing regions month to date based on sales growth were the Southeast, Florida, the Western region and California. The regions with the weakest sales were New York-New Jersey, the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southwest.