News

July restaurant sales up; West Coast outperforming East Coast

Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) announced that its Index of quick-service restaurant sales increased 5.3 percent nationwide in July 2015, compared to last July.

August 12, 2015

Applied Predictive Technologies (APT),  a cloud-based, analytics software company, reported that its index of restaurant sales increased 2.7 percent nationwide in July 2015, compared to last July. The increase was driven by a 3.3-percent increase in check size, while the number of checks was down 0.6 percent. Quick-service restaurant sales increased 5.3 percent, outpacing full-service sales growth of 1.1 percent.

"Restaurant sales on the West Coast have been performing well over the last several months," said APT CEO Anthony Bruce. "We've continued to see cities like Denver and San Francisco perform at the top of the list. Better weather and faster economic recovery in these areas are likely driving the positive sales growth compared to the rest of the country."

The APT Index aggregates in-store sales data at more than 100,000 chain stores and restaurants across the U.S. to show how year-over-year sales performance changes.

July restaurant sales by APT Index numbers:

• Quick-service restaurants:
• Sales: +5.3 percent
• Checks: +1.8 percent
• Check size: +3.5 percent

Top-performing metro areas in July by APT Index restaurant sales comps:

• Seattle: +6.5 percent
• Riverside, California: +6.3 percent
• Portland: +5.2% percent
• San Francisco: +3.9 percent
• Minneapolis: +3.5 percent

Lowest-performing metro areas in July by APT Index restaurant sales comps:

• Detroit: -1.9 percent
• Pittsburgh: -0.4 percent
• Baltimore: -0.4 percent
• Boston: +0.0 percent
• Philadelphia: +0.1 percent

All cities were chosen from the top-25 metro areas as defined by the Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) from the U.S. Census.

All July sales comps figures are a comparison of July 2015 to July 2014 for the physical channel, adjusted for consistent weekdays (July 1-31, 2015, compared to July 2-Aug. 1, 2014).