Allowing guests to flip a coin to see if they have to pay for their brunch. Giving out free margaritas. Renting buses to take fans to Braves games.
Hey, sometimes a restaurant’s gotta do what a restaurant’s gotta do.
For U.S. restaurants, this has been the roughest stretch in memory, with two years of declining traffic brought on by Americans being more cautious with their money. Visits to U.S. restaurants overall fell 1 percent in the quarter ending in June for the eighth consecutive quarterly drop, according to The NPD Group. Traffic was weakest at full-service restaurants: Visits to casual dining restaurants were down 2 percent and mid-scale restaurant traffic was down 3 percent. Fast-food restaurants managed to hold their visitor counts steady in the second quarter after five quarters of year-over-year declines, thanks to aggressive promotions of value menus. The market research firm, which has tracked the industry since 1976, says this is the worst downturn for restaurants in that span.
Atlanta provides a unique vantage point to see how restaurants are trying to adjust. It is home to a number of national fast food chains, such as Wendy’s/Arby’s, Chick-fil-A and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. And Atlanta diners visit restaurants more often than people in many other cities.
