The State of Local Restaurants 2019
Have you ever wondered how much money people spend eating out at local restaurants? We certainly have, so we crunched the numbers.
To project sales patterns in 2019, we analyzed transactions for every day of the 2018 calendar year at 42,223 small, local restaurants across the United States. The result is a comprehensive look at when local restaurants do the most business, when they seat the most guests, and how 2019 might compare to 2018 when it comes to dining local.
Use the map below to see local restaurant data for every state, or scroll down to read our national report. You can also see reports for major U.S. metro areas.
Understanding this report
To uncover how consumers are patronizing local restaurants, we looked at:
- Transactions: How many individual payments a restaurant processes on a given day.
- Ticket size: How much patrons spend on average per transaction on a given day.
- Daily sales revenue: How much revenue a restaurant makes on a given day.
How much do local restaurants make on an average day?
On a given day, restaurants in America brought in $1,273 in revenue. The average restaurant also processed about 45 transactions each day while seeing customers spend an average of $28.38 per ticket.
| Sales Revenue | Transactions | Ticket Size |
| $1,272 | 45 | $28.38 |
| National Average | National Average | National Average |
State by state comparison
In comparing the average day for restaurants in each state, restaurants in Rhode Island proved to bring home the consistently highest average revenue with $1,883 coming in on any given day. The largest average ticket belonged to restaurants in Vermont, where the average meal cost $38.22. North Carolina, meanwhile, was home to the country’s busiest restaurants, with 63 average daily transactions on a given day.
See where your state stacks up in the chart below.
| State | Daily Sales Revenue | Sales rev vs national | Ticket size | Ticket size vs national | Average Transactions | Transactions vs national |
|---|
How much do local restaurants make each week?
Unsurprisingly, restaurants across the country live for the weekends, with a combined total of 54% of all restaurant revenue coming in on Friday through Sunday.
Looking deeper, you can see Fridays are typically the busiest day of the week for restaurants across the country, but Americans typically spend a little more when they go out on Saturdays and Sundays.
How much does the average restaurant make in a year?
Americans clearly love to eat out regardless of the season, as local restaurants around the country see remarkably consistent performance month over month.
A closer look shows foot traffic gets off to a slow start with 40 average transactions per restaurant in January, before settling into a consistent average for the rest of the year. Average purchase prices also remain consistent throughout the year, with Americans choosing to splurge a bit over the holidays.
Top 5 days for local restaurants nationwide
Mother’s Day weekend was huge for local restaurants across the country. The number one revenue day in 17 states fell on Mother’s Day weekend, and 33 out of 50 states saw Mother’s Day weekend crack at least one of their top 5 days.
| #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 |
5/12/18 Day before Mother's Day |
5/13/18 Mother's Day |
5/5/18 Cinco de Mayo |
3/17/18 St. Patrick's Day |
4/28/18 |
| Saturday | Sunday | Saturday | Saturday | Saturday |
Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick’s Day likewise proved to be a huge day for restaurants across the country. Cinco de Mayo topped the charts in 6 states and was in the top 5 of 28 states. St. Patrick’s Day was the top day in 4 states and top 5 in 13 states.
Local restaurant revenue on prominent days
As the numbers above prove, restaurants look to events and holidays to generate big sales for their business. Here’s how prominent days rank compared to the average day.
| Day rank based on total sales | How much did restaurants that were open make? | ||||||||
| Day | Day Rank | Total rev vs avg | % of restaurants open | Avg rev | Rev vs avg | Avg txns | Txns vs avg | Avg ticket | Ticket vs avg |
| New Year's Day | 359 | -48% | 46% | $1,224 | -4% | 37 | -18% | $33.08 | 17% |
| Super Bowl Sunday | 255 | -20% | 71% | $1,232 | -3% | 40 | -11% | $30.64 | 8% |
| Valentine's Day | 120 | 13% | 87% | $1,434 | 13% | 46 | 3% | $30.86 | 9% |
| President's Day | 324 | -33% | 75% | $984 | -23% | 38 | -15% | $25.76 | -9% |
| St. Patrick's Day | 4 | 54% | 90% | $1,879 | 48% | 58 | 29% | $32.38 | 14% |
| Saturday before Easter | 43 | 42% | 90% | $1,727 | 36% | 53 | 17% | $32.83 | 16% |
| Easter Sunday | 231 | -14% | 59% | $1,602 | 26% | 42 | -6% | $38.06 | 34% |
| Cinco de Mayo | 3 | 58% | 94% | $1,834 | 44% | 56 | 25% | $32.63 | 15% |
| Day before Mother's Day | 1 | 62% | 95% | $1,863 | 46% | 53 | 19% | $34.90 | 23% |
| Mother's Day | 2 | 60% | 81% | $2,180 | 71% | 52 | 16% | $41.89 | 48% |
| Memorial Day | 273 | -23% | 65% | $1,301 | 2% | 43 | -4% | $30.26 | 7% |
| Day before Father's Day | 7 | 52% | 96% | $1,730 | 36% | 51 | 14% | $33.80 | 19% |
| Father's Day | 65 | 37% | 82% | $1,840 | 45% | 50 | 10% | $37.17 | 31% |
| 4th of July | 318 | -32% | 58% | $1,278 | 1% | 42 | -8% | $30.80 | 9% |
| Labor Day | 272 | -23% | 62% | $1,376 | 8% | 45 | 0% | $30.45 | 7% |
| Halloween | 236 | -15% | 87% | $1,065 | -16% | 43 | -5% | $24.91 | -12% |
| Veteran's Day | 152 | 4% | 74% | $1,544 | 21% | 48 | 7% | $31.98 | 13% |
| Thanksgiving | 364 | -62% | 34% | $1,239 | -3% | 31 | -31% | $39.69 | 40% |
| Black Friday | 185 | -5% | 76% | $1,374 | 8% | 41 | -9% | $33.71 | 19% |
| Saturday before Christmas | 82 | 29% | 82% | $1,723 | 35% | 49 | 8% | $35.32 | 24% |
| Christmas Eve | 300 | -28% | 60% | $1,318 | 4% | 34 | -25% | $39.07 | 38% |
| Christmas Day | 365 | -72% | 21% | $1,476 | 16% | 35 | -22% | $41.95 | 48% |
| New Year's Eve | 164 | -1% | 70% | $1,558 | 22% | 43 | -4% | $36.05 | 27% |
Methodology
Womply analyzed daily revenue for 42,223 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for all 365 days of the 2018 calendar year. Restaurants were only qualified for the analysis if they qualified as small businesses, Womply had a full year of transaction history, and the business recorded multiple transactions per day, on average.
