Slowing Restaurant Sales

The problem with products like food and drinks and with food service business is scalability. There are only a limited number of people in the market. The current slowdown in restaurant business has its roots in how the market grew at faster rate than the population growth. National Restaurant Association says that the number of restaurants grew at a more than two times the rate of population growth during the period 1990 to 2006. The total market size increased from $239 billion (nominal) to $550 billion (nominal). This implies two stylized facts:

1. The average sales per restaurant has remained constant over this period.
2. An average meals consumed outside the home per person increased as well.

The current economic slowdown will lead to people cutting their additional meals outside home. An average restaurant that saw near zero growth will now see its sales drop. With increase in marginal costs due to food prices increase and the increase in operational costs, restaurants are getting squeezed from revenue side and the cost side.

For franchise owners, there is no relief from the franchise fees despite falling sales and rising costs since the franchisees pay a percentage of the sales.

For family owned and operated restaurants, the impact is going to be worse, since the costs are much higher and the operations are geographically concentrated.

This calls into the question the notion of making a comfortable living by owning a franchise or a family restaurant let alone running a business