Same-store sales and customer traffic

Restaurant operators reported a net increase in same-store sales for the first time in three months. 

Forty-five percent of restaurant operators said their same-store sales rose between April 2024 and April 2025, according to the National Restaurant Association’s monthly tracking survey. That was up slightly from 43% of operators who reported higher sales in March. 

Forty-one percent of operators said their sales declined in April, compared to 45% in March.

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 modest same-store sales increase in April, restaurant operators continued to report dampened customer traffic readings. 

Thirty percent of operators said their customer traffic rose between April 2024 and April 2025, while 48% reported lower traffic. 

Although April’s results were an improvement from softer readings in February and March, it still represented the third consecutive month of negative customer traffic.

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