Data indicate rates of U.S. on-premise restaurant sales remain at about half what they were a year ago for the week ended Dec. 5, according to a Nielsen CGA track of outlets that remained open and operating.
New York-based Nielsen CGA’s RestauranTrak data set, released Thursday, found sales velocity in the on-premise channel was down 48% year-over-year for the week ended Dec. 5, the company said.
“Sales velocity is rate of sale,” said a Nielsen CGA spokesman, “meaning that we’re not saying that total U.S. on-premise sales (inclusive of the entire industry — all bars, restaurants, taprooms, etc., including those that closed) is negative 48% year-over-year.
“Instead, we’re specifically saying that for the outlets that we measure and that are still operational, sales are down 48% on average for the one-week period ending Dec. 5 vs. the same week one year prior,” the spokesman said.
The RestauranTrak data is derived from Nielsen CGA’s Check-Level Insights Pool, or CLIP, which comes from about 10,000 transaction-level point-of-sale feeds from a demographically balanced set of largely independently owned on-premise establishments. “These establishments share this data directly with Nielsen CGA,” the spokesman said.
The Nielson CGA RestauranTrak report looked more narrowly at five of the most populous states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas.
California
Sales velocity the week ended Dec. 5 was down 14% compared to the week ended Nov. 28. Nielsen CGA said California was “the only state of the five we analyzed that experienced declines during this period, as restrictions across the state tighten,” the company said.
Sales velocity was down 49% year-over-year (comparing the week ending Dec. 5 to the same week one year prior.)
Florida
Sales velocity was up 3% compared to the week ended Nov. 28.
Sales velocity was down 19% year-over-year (comparing the week ending Dec. 5 to the same week one year prior).
Illinois
Sales velocity was up 1% compared to the week ended Nov. 28.
Sales velocity was down 70% year-over-year (comparing the week ending Dec. 5 to the same week one year prior).
New York
Sales velocity was up 4% compared to the week ended Nov. 28.
That followed two consecutive weeks of 15% declines across the state.
Sales velocity was down 60% year-over-year (comparing the week ending Dec. 5 to the same week one year prior).
Texas
Sales velocity was up 13% compared to the week ended Nov. 28.
Matching Florida’s numbers, sales velocity was down 19% year-over-year (comparing the week ending Dec. 5 to the same week one year prior).
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that New York City would be shutting down indoor restaurant dining indefinitely on Monday as the COVID-19 hospitalizations increased.
Nielsen Holdings PLC, a data analytics company, in November 2019 launched Nielsen CGA’s RestauranTrak as a benchmarking platform for foodservice operators in the U.S.
The most recent On Premise Impact Report by Nielsen CGA, along with other special reports issued over the past several weeks, can be found at the Nielsen CGA website.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
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