THE STATE
OF
LOCAL RESTAURANTS
We analyzed transactions for every day of the 2017 calendar year at 26,000 small, independent restaurants across America. The result is a comprehensive look at when restaurants earn the most money, when they seat the most guests, and which states make the most dough from patrons who #eatlocal.
Use the map below to see local restaurant data for every state, or scroll down for the national report.
What we learned about local restaurants in America
Restaurants are one of the most stable small business industries. While there is a natural seasonality over the year, for the most part, monthly revenues only differ a few percentage points from month to month.
While holidays and prominent days have measurable impacts on revenues at the local level, weekends matter more than special days for restaurants to maintain a consistent flow of revenue. With few exceptions, the sales spike on any given weekend will outperform prominent days or holidays.
Understanding this report
To understand the average day for restaurants in America, we took a multidimensional look at their performance. We specifically looked at:
- Transactions: How many individual payments restaurants process.
- Ticket Size: How much patrons spend on average per transaction.
- Daily Sales Revenue: How much revenue restaurants make per day.
THE AVERAGE DAY FOR RESTAURANTS
Restaurants average 48 transactions at $35 every day, totaling about $1,720 in daily sales revenue.
| Transactions | Ticket Size | Sales Revenue |
| 48 | $35 | $1720 |
| National Average | National Average | National Average |
WEEKDAYS COMPARED TO WEEKENDS
Local restaurants in the United States consistently see more revenue, more transactions, and higher order sizes on the weekend.
THE AVERAGE WEEK FOR RESTAURANTS
Here we see the revenue distribution across every day of the week for local restaurants nationally. Each day contributes a percentage of the week’s total revenue. For restaurants, weekends are easily the biggest revenue contributors.
THE AVERAGE YEAR FOR RESTAURANTS
Here we see how sales trends at local eateries behave during all 12 months of the year. December is the best month for most restaurants nationally and one of the top 3 revenue-generating months for 30 of 50 states.
TOP 5 DAYS FOR RESTAURANTS
Here are the top revenue-generating days for restaurants in the United States. Mother’s Day weekend tops the chart for most states. In fact, 24 of 50 states have Mother’s Day in their top 5 revenue-generating days of the year, and it’s the very best sales day of the year for 2 in 5 local restaurants nationally.
| #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 |
| MAY 14 Mother’s Day |
MAY 13 Mother’s Day Weekend |
MAR 25 | MAR 18 St. Patrick’s Day Weekend |
FEB 25 |
| SUNDAY | SATURDAY | SATURDAY | SATURDAY | SATURDAY |
RESTAURANTS ON PROMINENT DAYS
Restaurants put a lot of focus and work into big events and holidays. Here’s how prominent days rank compared to the average day.
| Day | Rank/365 | Daily Sales | Change in sales | Number of transactions | Change in Transaction Volume | Avg transaction size | Change in Avg Ticket |
| Super Bowl | 274 | $1,354 | -21.33% | 37 | -22.63% | $36.13 | 2.46% |
| Valentine’s Day | 107 | $2,025 | 17.68% | 50 | 4.00% | $40.20 | 14.00% |
| St. Patrick’s Day | 48 | $2,352 | 36.67% | 67 | 38.24% | $35.12 | -0.41% |
| Cinco De Mayo | 36 | $2,402 | 39.59% | 68 | 40.57% | $35.28 | 0.05% |
| Mother’s Day | 1 | $2,824 | 64.12% | 54 | 12.39% | $51.88 | 47.12% |
| Father’s Day | 53 | $2,335 | 35.67% | 50 | 3.62% | $46.52 | 31.92% |
| July 4th | 345 | $1,117 | -35.07% | 30 | -38.44% | $37.47 | 6.26% |
| Day before T-giving | 130 | $1,856 | 7.89% | 52 | 7.18% | $35.76 | 1.41% |
| Thanksgiving | 364 | $819 | -52.40% | 14 | -71.00% | $58.31 | 65.35% |
| Christmas Eve | 187 | $1,596 | -7.23% | 30 | -37.42% | $52.67 | 49.36% |
| Christmas | 365 | $595 | -65.44% | 11 | -77.45% | $54.47 | 54.46% |
| New Year’s Eve | 84 | $2,241 | 30.24% | 45 | -7.13% | $49.82 | 41.28% |
Methodology
Womply analyzed daily revenue for 25,893 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for all 365 days of the 2017 calendar year. Restaurants were only qualified for the analysis if Womply had a full year of transaction history and the business recorded multiple transactions per day, on average.
About Womply
Womply is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider to small businesses and one of the fastest growing software companies in America. Our mission is to help small businesses thrive in a digital world. Every day we serve more than 100,000 small businesses across 400+ business verticals, in every corner of America. To learn more, visit https://www.womply.com or email info@womply.com.
