Same-store sales and customer traffic

Restaurant operators reported mixed sales results in January, which was an improvement from December’s dampened readings. 

Forty-three percent of restaurant operators said their same-store sales rose between January 2025 and January 2026, according to the National Restaurant Association’s monthly tracking survey. That was up from 37% of operators who reported higher sales in December. 

Forty-five percent of operators said their sales declined in January, down from 53% in December.

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 and type of ownership.

Restaurant operators continued to report customer traffic declines in January, though results were somewhat better than December. 

Thirty-six percent of operators said their customer traffic rose between January 2025 and January 2026, up from 28% in December. Fifty-five percent of restaurant operators reported lower traffic in January, down from 60% in December. 

January represented the 12th consecutive month in which operators reported a net decline in customer traffic.

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