OVERLAND PARK Kan. Applebee's, the first national casual-dining chain to report August same-store sales, was not able to snap the string of negative figures that has plagued it and most of the segment for much of the past two years.
Applebee’s International Inc. said Tuesday that domestic systemwide same-store sales at units open more than 18 months fell 0.9 percent for the four weeks ended Aug. 26, compared with the same period a year ago. Same-store sales at domestic franchised restaurants decreased 0.7 percent, the company reported, while same-store sales at corporate restaurants fell 1.6 percent. Customer traffic at corporate stores declined between 6 percent and 6.5 percent, Applebee’s noted, which matched some of the chain’s worst traffic results in two years.
Applebee’s said both sales and traffic at corporate restaurants in the year-earlier period had been positively impacted by an advertising campaign that included a freestanding insert.
Applebee’s, which operates or franchises about 1,950 restaurants, agreed in July to be acquired by family-dining franchisor IHOP Corp. for about $2.1 billion. Like many of its casual-dining peers, Applebee’s has struggled against negative same-store sales and declining traffic counts for most of the past two years in the face of macroeconomic consumer pressures, such as higher gas prices and declining home values.
Systemwide domestic same-store sales for the eight weeks ended Aug. 26 decreased 0.9 percent, which reflected dips of 0.9 percent at domestic franchised restaurants and 0.8 percent at corporate restaurant locations.