---
title: "QSR: Restaurant Sales Cool Off Significantly in January"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/234a65ac-fc0c-44dd-babe-eb428db6279a
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/qsr-restaurant-sales-cool-off-significantly-in-january-2705516
category: "QSR"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "QSR"
published: 2018-02-09T16:11:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:09:52.297Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/563909d7d850ef6d84f66c0d23d8caac6218.jpg
---

# QSR: Restaurant Sales Cool Off Significantly in January

**TL;DR:** The restaurant industry experienced a 0.3 percent decline in same-store sales in January, breaking a three-month streak of flat or positive growth. Despite this, experts remain cautiously optimistic about the industry's performance.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-02-09. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/qsr-restaurant-sales-cool-off-significantly-in-january-2705516).*

## Story

The restaurant industry lost a bit of steam in January, but experts believe it isn’t something owners should worry about. According to a recent QSR Magazine article, same-store sales declined 0.3 percent across the industry and broke a three-month streak of flat or positive growth in sales.

“Although January’s sales results are somewhat disappointing, we remain cautiously optimistic about the industry’s performance,” said Victor Fernandez, executive director of insights and knowledge for TDn2K. “Even if the month posted some small negative growth in sales, January’s results were better than for any other month in the February through September period last year.”

Severe winter storms were a big factor that affected restaurant sales across the East Coast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, but a positive trend shows the average guest check grew by three percent. According to restaurant owners, the top concerns remain to be employee staffing and traffic to their locations.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- QSR Magazine (publication)
- restaurant sales (topic)
- Midwest (location)
- East Coast (location)
- Mid-Atlantic (location)
- industry performance (topic)
- winter storms (topic)
- employee staffing (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/qsr-restaurant-sales-cool-off-significantly-in-january-2705516). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/234a65ac-fc0c-44dd-babe-eb428db6279a).