As the restaurant industry slowly recovers from two years of traffic declines, operators are rolling out more and more options to keep the momentum going. There’s more emphasis on nontraditional “day-parts,” such as late-night happy hours or midafternoon snack times; an increase in daily deal offerings such as Groupon; new menu items such as chicken at breakfast or eggs at lunch and dinner; branded products; and even smaller, more cost-efficient formats.
“We’re seeing a lot of downsizing, a casualization of fine dining, more entertainment and promotions on the weekdays. Along with that there’s been a lot of focus put on bar food,” said Bonnie Riggs, restaurant industry analyst for The NPD Group, a market research firm. “Which serves a lot of purposes in terms of giving consumers more choices — smaller portions, small prices and also an opportunity for the operator to move a lot of high-profit-margin alcoholic beverages.”
For the year ending February 2011, total industry traffic was flat, compared with a 3 percent decline for the same period a year ago. A report by NPD Group forecasts growth of less than 1 percent a year through 2019. So if the market isn’t growing — or isn’t growing by much — restaurants have to be even more competitive and creative.