Black Box Intelligence Data: Coronavirus and the Restaurant Industry

Black Box Intelligence issued a report on Coronavirus and the Restaurant Industry. Among the key insights:

In the market in which the first major outbreak occurred (Seattle), restaurant sales dropped by 10% during the initial week. However, this only includes a day or two of heightened public awareness. Real impact is expected to be over 20% in lost restaurant sales after one full week.*

*Source: Black Box Financial Intelligence™ Full service restaurants in Washington are seeing the most negative effect in terms of lost sales, especially those that are more upscale.*

*Source: Black Box Financial Intelligence™ Restaurant spending seems to be shifting away from full service restaurants towards limited service restaurants, at least initially.*** There is also an increase of to-go restaurant sales in the first market affected. Average to-go sales by restaurant location increased by 10.5% in Seattle during the week ending March 1.* These shifts seem to indicate that as concerns…