March restaurant survey data indicated a 1.2% increase in
same-store sales (SSS), with an overall first quarter growth of
1.0%, negatively impacted by February's lagging results due to
severe winter weather in the Northeast and Midwest. The 2018 annual
growth of 0.7% represented the strongest sales growth rates for
restaurants in the past three years, and the first quarter of 2019
was the fourth consecutive quarter in which SSS was positive, the
first time this has occurred since 2015.
Restaurants experienced a 1.8% decline in same-store traffic in
March, proving that February's drop of 3.7% was more of an
anomaly than the start of a trend. Even inclusive of February's
outlier results, the first quarter of 2019 experienced a 2.0%
decline overall in guest traffic, a slight downturn from the fourth
quarter's 1.6% decline and the third quarter's 1.3%
decline, which had been the best quarterly result in the last three
years.
