September 20/Chicago/Food & Beverage Close-Up -- The effects of a lingering recession continued to keep visits to U.S. restaurants down for the eighth consecutive quarter this past spring, but the rate of decline eased over the same quarter a year ago, according to The NPD Group, a market research company.
NPD's foodservice market research reports that visits to restaurants declined by -1% in the quarter ending June 2010, an improvement over the -3% traffic loss in spring 2009. After four consecutive quarters of declines consumer spending at commercial foodservice, this spring edged above a year ago spending, with a +1% lift.