In our little burg the economic meltdown came later than it did in many places. If the news on CNBC is too be believed things have been getting better in some places for a while now.
For a tourist ecomomy like ours, sales tax results from the city are a pretty clear snapshot of how things are going and so far it could only be said that the decline has stopped. Full year sales tax receipts from restaurants are going to come in around -3-5% but with the largest declines in Jan-Mar and a mixed result with some up and down months since then.
In our business we went to more or less flat comps in late winter and have showed a modest up-trend since memorial day. I use a 91 day trailing number (divides by 7 so there is always an even number of the various days of the week) That trailing number went positive (compared to the same period one year earlier) a number of weeks ago and has stayed positive. It is gradually increasing and stands at about +8% right now. We also went positive on comparisons to 2008 this week: The first two year positive numbers since October 2008.
To say it is a load off my mind might be premature, but it is finally looking better. The good news is also that our labor is down by about $2500 per month on average from last year and cheese is at an OK price range unlike the perfect storm of high costs and low sales we went through last year!
What are you guys seeing?
For a tourist ecomomy like ours, sales tax results from the city are a pretty clear snapshot of how things are going and so far it could only be said that the decline has stopped. Full year sales tax receipts from restaurants are going to come in around -3-5% but with the largest declines in Jan-Mar and a mixed result with some up and down months since then.
In our business we went to more or less flat comps in late winter and have showed a modest up-trend since memorial day. I use a 91 day trailing number (divides by 7 so there is always an even number of the various days of the week) That trailing number went positive (compared to the same period one year earlier) a number of weeks ago and has stayed positive. It is gradually increasing and stands at about +8% right now. We also went positive on comparisons to 2008 this week: The first two year positive numbers since October 2008.
To say it is a load off my mind might be premature, but it is finally looking better. The good news is also that our labor is down by about $2500 per month on average from last year and cheese is at an OK price range unlike the perfect storm of high costs and low sales we went through last year!
What are you guys seeing?
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