Nation's Restaurant News headlined this as a 1 percent decline in the overall restaurant economy, but the narrative and accompanying chart (click link at the end) reveal that independent restaurants bore the brunt of the loss while chains held steady. Nobody gained. Overall, I'd say Louisville continues to resist the trend, but keep on supporting those locals!
U.S. restaurant count declines
Nation's Restaurant News
January 24, 2011 | By Paul Frumkin
The Chicago-based research firm said the total number of domestic restaurants fell about 1 percent, or by 5,551 outlets, to 579,102 locations in the fall of 2010 compared with the fall of 2009. By comparison, The NPD Group’s ReCount data found the number of restaurants declined about 0.3 percent, or by 1,652 units, in the fall of 2009 versus 2008.
Independent restaurants were the hardest hit in the commercial sector, with the number of outlets falling by about 2 percent, or 2,122 restaurants, to 311,694 compared with a year ago. The number of chain units was about flat during this past fall, holding about steady at 267,408 outlets.
Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/us-restauran ... z1C3qQeRoJ