Same-store sales and customer traffic

Restaurant operators reported a modest net increase in same-store sales for the fifth consecutive month in August. 

Forty-six percent of restaurant operators said their same-store sales rose between August 2024 and August 2025, according to the National Restaurant Association’s monthly tracking survey. That was down slightly from 48% of operators who reported higher sales in July. 

Forty-three percent of operators said their sales declined in August, compared to 42% in July.

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.

In contrast to the net increase in same-store sales, restaurant operators continued to report dampened customer traffic readings. 

Thirty-eight percent of operators said their customer traffic rose between August 2024 and August 2025, down slightly from 40% in July. Forty-two percent of restaurant operators reported lower traffic in August, compared to 46% in July. 

August represented the seventh consecutive month in which operators reported a net decline in customer traffic.

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