March 2010 – Same store sales update

Quick service segment 4th quarter average same store sales: -4.7%

  • Arby’s: -11% (only down 7.4% in January)
  • Wendy’s: -3%
  • Sonic:  -13% (blames the heavy snow)
  • Carl’s Jr.: -2.6%
  • Hardees: -6.2%
  • McDonald’s: +.6%

Casual dining segment 4th quarter average same store sales: -4.2%

  • Buffalo Wild Wings:  +2.0%
    • fun facts—-Buffalo Wild Wings essentially sells a neighborhood sports bar concept. It features Buffalo style chicken wings, burgers, and other “bar” foods. Takeout represents about 13% of sales. Another 22% of total sales are derived, not surprisingly, from traditional chicken wings. Boneless wings, which have better margins than the regular kind, were 19% of Q4 sales, up from 17% in Q4 2008.
  • Famous Daves:  -6.3% for company-owned restaurants and -8.5% for franchise-operated restaurants.
  • Morton’s: -11.6%

Fast Casual segment 4th quarter average same store sales: -.08%

  • Panera Bread: +7.4%
  • Cosi: -11.9%

Pizza segment 4th quarter average same store sales: +1.8%

  • Domino’s: +1.8%
  • Papa  Murphy’s +2.0%

Family dining segment 4th quarter average same store sales: -2.7%

  • Steak n Shake: +14.4%
  • Frisch’s Big Boy: -.4%
  • Cracker Barrel: -.2%
  • Denny’s: -6.1% at corporate owned units, -7.2% at franchised units
  • iHOP: -3.1%

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Article by Ryan Knoll

Ryan is an attorney and valuation specialist residing in Chicago. He chronicles his thoughts and research on FranchisePundit.com. You may reach him by email ryanknoll@gmail.com or mobile telephone 312-715-8115. Ryan Knoll tagged this post with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Read 448 articles by
3 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Ryan;

    Did you see where Cosi’s is being delisted?

    • Ryan Knoll says:

      Yes, I did. It’s all over the Chicago papers. The fact that nobody has acquired it sheds even more light on how financial poor their business is. Most of their restaurants are way too big. They could do well with stores 25% of the size.

  2. FuwaFuwaUsagi says:

    As I recall Cracker Barrel always has trouble during extended periods of bad weather. I think the reality is they cater to a more mature audience who probably is less likely to be out and about in snow storms and the like. That being said they are probably well positioned in terms of being able to generate new excitement at a reasonable cost with their customers as the boomers enter retirement and America ages.

    I would love to see their demographic profile of a customer.

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