Friday, September 13, 2013

Restaurant Sales vs. Wages


Click to enlarge.



Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

6 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

For what it is worth, I would place a bet at even odds that we will soon exit the trend channel.

Rob Dawg said...

We do not disagree often.

What's this? No offense but nonosupervisorey wages? Sales ($) not meals served or adjusted for whatever?

This only suggests (at best)that popular restaurants are getting more efficient.

You are not wrong. I only posit you haven't made the connection.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Rob Dawg,

I prefer to use nonsupervisory wages to more closely capture how the median (typical) American is doing.

Put another way, I do not believe that the top 1% have a material impact on the overall restaurant industry.

Hey, it's just a thought!

Stagflationary Mark said...

As a side note, I don't see how this chart shows that popular restaurants getting more efficient.

All we know from this chart is that since the bottom of the recession, restaurants are bringing in more and more money relative to all production and nonsupervisory wages.

It could mean that restaurants are more efficient getting people to spend more *or* it could mean that people are being irrational about the long-term future of this country and have decided to live a little while they await an ever improving economy.

Either works.

Stagflationary Mark said...

I should mention that the "irrational" part is an opinion of course.

Stagflationary Mark said...

September 6, 2013
Report: Restaurant sales fall in August, consumers still optimistic

Same-store traffic fell 1.9 percent during the month, slightly better than the 2.2-percent decline in July and the 2.5-percent drop reported for June.

More stores? Less sales per store?

“However, given the strengthening of this index as well as the growing consumer confidence in the overall economy, we believe September might result in slightly improved results for restaurants,” said Victor Fernandez, executive director of insights and knowledge for Black Box Intelligence and People Report.

September 13, 2013
Consumer confidence tumbles as interest rates rise