June restaurant survey data indicated a 1.1% improvement in
same-store sales (SSS), the fourth consecutive month of positive or
flat sales. The recent improvement in sales provides evidence for
the industry's relative recovery, as the industry has reported
sales increases in six of the past nine months, and the second
quarter had an overall improvement of 0.8%. So far in 2018,
same-store sales growth has been positive, which is encouraging for
an industry that saw its sales decline by 1.0% during each of the
previous two years.
However, restaurants experienced a 1.7% decline in same-store
traffic during June. While this is an improvement of roughly one
percentage point from earlier in the year, it still indicates
issues in the industry with regards to driving traffic, stemming
from an oversupply of restaurants and fierce competition from
outside of the chain restaurant sector. With positive sales coming
from only an increase in average checks, the biggest problem
