As inflation continues to climb in Canada, restaurateurs are looking for ways to keep their dining rooms full and their profit margins high. With supply chain shortages and skyrocketing prices for items like lettuce, it can be a challenge to balance a superior customer experience with a healthy bottom line. Unfortunately, food costs have already […]
Although prices continue to rise and more and more Canadians are forced to make tough decisions about the spending they can afford, new data from the NPD Group reveals that foodservice industry traffic in Canada reached near pre-pandemic levels in May. The data found that foodservice traffic was just one per cent off its May […]
Capturing diners across all demographics has always been part of the challenge for restaurants. Attracting Gen Z is a unique test, particularly in the current economic and social climate. Gen Z have less disposable money and more competition for how to spend that money than perhaps any other generation in recent history. Throw in the […]
By Vince Sgabellone Canadian consumers have shifted the way in which they access and consume from a restaurant menu over the past two years. How they place orders, why they choose to eat out, where they consume their meals, and who is consuming. And what about the “what”? Have Canadians changed what they have been […]
That the COVID-19 pandemic has changed foodservice forever appears evident. But how exactly will consumers interact with restaurants in a post-pandemic world? Canadians have developed many new habits in how they go about their daily lives and access their food. Vince Sgabellone, a Canadian Foodservice Industry Analyst at the NPD Group, highlights five trends to […]
For decades, many restaurants and food retailers have done great business at lunchtime, due in no small part to the vast influx of workers stepping out of their office and into a foodservice establishment, whether that is full-service, quick-service, or grocery store. That daypart, naturally, was near-eradicated during the height of the pandemic given the […]
Recent data from The NPD Group has found that the Canadian restaurant count fell by 5,000 during 2020. Before the pandemic, there had been around 66,000 Canadian restaurant units since 2016. Then, 2020 happened. The NPD Group data reports the industry lost 5,000 units, a decline of eight per cent, last year. Independent restaurants lost […]
With lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions beginning to lift across Canada and vaccine rates continuing to climb, more and more patrons are ready to return to indoor dining. According to data from The NPD Group, nearly half (46 per cent) of Canadians plan to physically eat at a restaurant, bar, or coffee shop in light […]
It will come as little surprise to most that the number of digital takeout orders has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. But new research from the NDP Group has lifted the lid on just how big the spike has been. Digital ordering was a life-saving avenue for many restaurants and foodservice operators across North America […]
Since April, at the height of closures, several areas of the restaurant industry have returned closer to pre-pandemic levels over the last months.
