***Within-segment average of latest quarter change combined with change from same year-earlier quarter.

Starbucks Corp. said same-store sales in the U.S.-dominated Americas market rose 7% in the third quarter ended June 30, and credited a 4% increase in ticket and 3% rise in traffic stemming, in part, from greater afternoon business. The latest increase pushed Starbucks Americas’ year-to-date same-store sales growth to 5%, signaling a possible return to the upper single-digit annual gains that eluded it the past two fiscal years. CEO Kevin Johnson said improvements resulted from “enhancing the customer experience, driving new beverage innovation and accelerating the expansion of our digital customer relationships.”

Domino’s Pizza Inc.’s U.S. system’s comparable-store sales growth of 3% in the second quarter not only lagged the same 2018 quarter’s 6.9% improvement, but was the lowest second-quarter gain since 2012’s 1.7% rise. From 2013 through 2018 Domino’s U.S. system reported average second-quarter comps growth of 8.5%, but has experienced a steady deceleration since 2015’s 12.8% increase. Jeffrey Lawrence, Domino’s chief financial officer, noted during a recent call with analysts, “We continue to experience pressure on the U.S. comp from our successful fortressing strategy, as well as from aggressive marketing of third-party [delivery] aggregators.”