---
title: "QSR Magazine: Restaurants Still Experiencing Weak Sales"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/d74c29c7-c7e2-4ae9-ae4c-d11a25b2830d
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/qsr-magazine-restaurants-still-experiencing-weak-sales-4927
category: "QSR"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "QSR"
published: 2016-06-14T20:15:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:13:38.129Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/e149760f8893addfd1addbeb9d9cfde09552160614122451.jpeg
---

# QSR Magazine: Restaurants Still Experiencing Weak Sales

**TL;DR:** Restaurant sales have still not returned to positive territory despite a slight improvement in May, with sales down 0.3 percent, according to TDn2K's Black Box Intelligence. Same-store traffic was down 2.7 percent in May, but showed a 0.8 percent improvement from April.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-06-14. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/qsr-magazine-restaurants-still-experiencing-weak-sales-4927).*

## Story

Despite a slight improvement in May restaurant sales, the industry has still not returned to positive territory. Sales were -0.3 percent a—0.

7 percent improvement from April. May was the third consecutive month of declining sales, which have continued to slide since the fourth quarter of 2015. The average growth rate for the last eight months is -0.

2 percent, with only three positive months during the period seeing modest growth of roughly 0.5 percent. This insight comes from data reported by TDn2K’s Black Box Intelligence through The Restaurant Industry Snapshot, based on weekly sales from over 24,000 restaurant units, 120-plus brands, representing $64 billion dollars in annual revenue.

Same-store traffic was down -2.7 percent in May. Despite the large drop, this was a 0.8 percent improvement from April, which saw the worst sales and traffic performance in over two years.

“The industry faced much different consumer behavior in the first half of 2016,” says Victor Fernandez, executive director of Insights and Knowledge for TDn2K. “As a comparison, guest counts fell only by an average -0.5 percent in the first five months of 2015 while restaurants were able to engineer strong check increases of roughly 3.1 percent. Today, the industry struggles as traffic was down -2.6 percent in the first five months of 2016 and average guest checks grew at a much more moderate 2.3 percent.”

“The May employment report was surprisingly weak, but it should not be taken as a signal that the economy has slowed sharply or that consumers will stop spending,” says Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and TDn2K economist. “The pressures on the labor market are still building, despite the slowing in hiring. That bodes well for income growth.

In addition, consumers remain confident about the future. Rising income and confidence imply that household spending should improve as we go through the summer. Indeed, projections are for a strong summer travel season that should lead to increased traffic at restaurants.”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- QSR Magazine (publication)
- industry trends (topic)
- restaurant sales (topic)
- economic outlook (topic)
- consumer behavior (topic)
- Black Box Intelligence (company)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/qsr-magazine-restaurants-still-experiencing-weak-sales-4927). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/d74c29c7-c7e2-4ae9-ae4c-d11a25b2830d).