Fear versus factFear versus fact

Sarah E. Lockyer

As the stock market declined this summer, consumer confidence crumbled and economic outlooks became more “double dip” than “slow recovery,” it seems no one told the restaurant customer, who continued to dine out and drive industry same-store sales. 


The latest MillerPulse operator survey, an exclusive to Nation’s Restaurant News, found that industry same-store sales rose 2.3 percent in August, about flat from a same-store sales increase of 2.1 percent in July and above August 2010 growth of 1.2 percent.


“The August sales results support the view that there is more fear than fact about business trends,” said Larry Miller, restaurant securities analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Atlanta and creator of the monthly MillerPulse...