“Micro-chains are bringing to the restaurant scene a new attitude and perspective,” said Annie Roberts, vice president of NPD’s SupplyTrack. “Many are successful because they have their finger on the pulse of today’s restaurant consumer. They are often locally based and offer their customers a creative concept, great food, and an enjoyable experience. What’s not to like?”
According to NPD’s biannual restaurant census, Dallas-Fort Worth leads the charge with a 5 percent gain in micro-chains from a year ago. Other major cities seeing strong increases include Orlando (up 4 percent), Atlanta and Washington DC (up 3 percent), San Francisco and Houston (up 2 percent) and Chicago (up 1 percent). Philadelphia and New York remained flat while Boston dropped by 2 percent.
NPD’s SupplyTrack, which tracks monthly sales of every product shipped from leading broadline distributors to each of their foodservice operators, reported micro-chains increased their total spend for foods and goods with broadline distributors by 5 percent and cases ordered by 3 percent compared to Q1 one year ago. In comparison, the total dollar spend for all restaurant and retail foodservice operators with major broadline foodservice distributors was 2 percent and cases ordered were up 1 percent.
