Sales Trends

This post is part of the On the Margin blog. Much has been made, particularly in this space, of the sudden weakness in the quick-service segment over the summer. Traffic is down this year, and same-store sales have been weak, at best. But t...

Chain hikes guidance after 4.1% increase in third quarter same-store sales

Same-store sales pick up after summer downturn, NRA Restaurant Performance Index finds

Same-store sales fall 5.2 percent at Applebee’s and drop 0.1 percent at IHOP

This post is part of the On the Margin blog. Bill Ackman is a well-known activist investor with a penchant for taking on big companies. How big? A decade ago, he took on McDonald’s Corp., by far the biggest restaurant chain in the world, and o...

Outback Steakhouse parent plans to trim chain’s menu, focus on customer experience

This post is part of the On the Margin blog. 2016 started out as the year of the deal in the restaurant industry. It’s turning out to be the year of the dud. The restaurant industry doesn’t have a same-store sales problem so much as it h...

Take-out accounts for 16 percent of third-quarter sales at casual-dining chain

CEO says bakery-café brand gets smarter in hiring, technology

This post is part of the On the Margin blog. Attendees of the recent MUFSO conference arrived at an uncertain time in the industry’s history. Private-equity groups and other investors are pumping money into upstart chains in the belief that...