Are local restaurants feeling the love on Valentine’s Day?
Roses are red. Violets are blue. Was Valentine’s so-so for your restaurant, too?
Every year, couples across America dote upon one another with cards, flowers, and a night out as they celebrate their well-established or new-found love. We wanted to know how much of that love made its way to small, independent restaurants, so we crunched the numbers.
- What we measured: We analyzed transactions at 26,000 small, independent restaurants across all 50 states for every day of 2017, paying particular attention to the number of transactions, the average size of the ticket, and total daily sales.
- Turns out: Valentine’s Day isn’t even in the top 100 best days of the year for restaurants– it comes in at 107/365.
- What else we found: For most restaurants, it’s basically as good for sales as the average weekend. Read the findings in detail.
- The takeaway: Despite the hype, the abundance of reservations, and general busy feeling, Valentine’s Day really is just business as usual for restaurants.
While Valentine’s Day might be one of the most romantic days of the year, restaurants aren’t feeling the love. Our friends at USA TODAY had some further analysis that’s worth a read.
THIS MONTH’S KEY STAT
73%
of small businesses
would shut down within
six months if sales stopped.
And most businesses
haven’t insured against
the biggest threats
facing their businesses.
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EXTRA CREDIT USA TODAY: WHY SOME SMALL RESTAURANTS HATE VALENTINE’S DAY USA TODAY featured our analysis of small restaurant’s revenues on Valentine’s Day and included several great insights. |