In
contrast to the nationwide downward trend (see below), HD client Santino's has doubled their revenue in the first year since launching the HD system. To see more detail Click here
Google "Sherman Oaks Pizza?" see
here
U.S. restaurants starved for
business August 20,
2010|By Sharon Bernstein, Los Angeles Times The number of restaurants
operating nationwide dropped this year for the first time in more than a decade,
a survey shows, with California accounting for almost a third of the losses. With
consumers and businesses keeping a lid on expenses, more and more small and mid-size restaurants
are throwing in their dish towels and closing up shop. Southern California lost
nearly a thousand more restaurants than it gained during the 12 months that
ended in March, representing a net 2% drop that was twice the national average,
according to the New York research firm NPD Group. Nearly all the closings were
among independently owned restaurants: small, family businesses that just
couldn't hold on as customers held back. Earlier in the year restaurants
reported modest increases in business, but the jumps in sales were too little
too late for many.
"We were going in reverse," said Ken
Rausch, who last month made the wrenching decision to close his family's
65-year-old San Gabriel Valley restaurant, Edward's Steakhouse. The restaurant
had weathered previous recessions, but this downturn drained the family's
resources — and showed few signs of letting up, Rausch said.
Other
well-known haunts have also succumbed: Orso on 3rd Street near Robertson
Boulevard, a trattoria popular with the entertainment crowd, closed last winter
after a nearby movie studio laid off a big chunk of its employees; across the
nation, Koo Koo Roo, Bennigan's, Bakers Square, Tony Roma's and other chains
have shut dozens of locations.
Even in good times, the restaurant
business is a difficult one. Many close simply because they fall out of fashion
or favor, and most run on slim margins. But this downturn seems especially
brutal.
"It's been a miserable 2 1/2 years," said Chuck Keagle, who has
closed six of the 10 restaurants in his family's Rancho Cucamonga-based Cask 'n
Cleaver steakhouse chain since the downturn began.
Customers began
spending less when the economic crisis hit in late 2007, he said. Business
started to stabilize this year but diners are still spending about 25% less than
they did during the economic boom, Keagle said.
Overall, customers spent
about 7% less in 2009 than the previous year, and business is still slow, said
Darren Tristano, analyst with the food industry research firm Technomic Inc. The
company expects consumers to spend just 0.5 percentage point more on restaurant
food this year than last year. California, with its high unemployment, has
been disproportionately
affected. |
|
|
