Same-store sales and customer traffic

Restaurant operators reported a net increase in same-store sales for the sixth consecutive month in July. 

Forty-seven percent of restaurant operators said their same-store sales rose between July 2025 and July 2026, according to the National Restaurant Association’s monthly tracking survey. That was essentially unchanged from the previous four months. 

Thirty-four percent of restaurant operators said their sales declined in July, up slightly from 31% in June.

Restaurant operators: Want to know how your business compares to similar restaurants on a monthly basis? Find out by taking a few minutes to participate in the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey. All survey respondents receive exclusive access to the detailed survey results each month, broken out by industry segment.

Continuing the trend of recent months, restaurant operators reported dampened customer traffic levels. 

Forty percent of operators said their customer traffic rose between July 2025 and July 2026, up from 35% in June. Forty-nine percent of operators reported lower traffic in July, up from 43% in June. 

July represented the 17th time in the last 18 months that operators reported a net decline in customer traffic.

Track more economic indicators and read more analysis and commentary from the Association's economists.