Two new reports in the hospitality industry have come out with the research showing the dire situation bars and restaurants continue to face. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is reporting that $120 Billion in sales have been lost from March to May and Yelp has announced that nearly 50% of restaurants that are currently closed, have closed for good.
Total Sales Lost Hits New Peak
According to the NRA’s latest data, $40 billion in sales were lost in the month of May due to the coronavirus, bringing the total to $120 billion when including $30 billion in lost sales from March and another $50 billion in April.
The effect is crystal clear when looking at unemployment numbers for NAICS industry code "72”, Accommodations and Food Services. It is by far the heaviest hit of any industry with over 6 million jobs lost according to estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in March and April. Only 25% of those jobs have been clawed back with May posting a positive 1.4 million jobs gained.
The National Restaurant Association and other advocacy groups are calling for federal support to curb the projected $240 billion possible total lost sales in 2020 for the industry.
A trade group for independent U.S. restaurants says its proposal for $120 billion in government aid will pay for itself more than twice over https://t.co/wX6dBmItGL
— Bloomberg (@business) June 10, 2020
Permanent Closures Rising
Bar & Restaurant asked its readers if they believe the economic situation has improved or worsened over the last two weeks and found that 45% said it had worsened compared to 32% who were positive. Readers predicted that 42% of bars and restaurants would not survive 2020 which is not far off from research analysts.
More than 35% of business closures have been marked as permanent closures, @Yelp finds. Yelp’s Data Science VP Justin Norman weighs in. https://t.co/fTtjJkqOMk pic.twitter.com/fVENXgClyd
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 15, 2020
Yelp has announced that 143,000 businesses have shut down on their platform and 35% of those are believed to be for good. Of that total number, 17% are restaurants, 23% include retail, and beauty makes up 13%.
Restaurants may be in line with retail and beauty for the percent that is temporarily closed but the conditions are drastically worse for permanent closures at 48%. Compare that permanent closure rate of 27% for retail and only 18% for beauty locations. This may be unsurprising given this industry’s track record of having the lowest amount of capital on hand (around 14 days according to J.P. Morgan) and the need for rent abetment and the difficulty finding staff continues to provide difficulty in surviving with reduced capacities and lower demands.
Portland restaurants ask for ‘a little more warning’ after last-minute pause on Multnomah County reopening https://t.co/1Wt1c7hmxQ pic.twitter.com/DjT6ENyGxh
— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) June 12, 2020
As a further threat, several cities across the country are looking at slowing their plans for reopening as COVID-19 cases spike. Houston and jurisdictions in Arizona and Oregon have publicly announced they are considering slowing down reopening plans or reverting to more stay-at-home orders.
At least 8 more Houston restaurants close temporarily after staffers test positive: @gregmorago reports. https://t.co/bBSqw385Ud
— Alison Cook (@alisoncook) June 15, 2020
On a more positive note, OpenTable's industry report showed reservations were only down ~65% across the U.S. on Friday and Saturday from this past weekend compared to the previous year. This is nearly a 15 point improvement from just two weeks ago.
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