October 26/Chicago/NPD Group -- The NPD Group finds tap water is one of the fastest growing beverages ordered at U.S. restaurants, while revenue-generating beverages have been declining over the past five years.
Currently, tap water servings represent 8% of the 50 billion beverage servings ordered at restaurants, according to NPD's CREST service, which continually tracks consumer use of restaurants. Within the past five years, restaurant traffic has dropped 1%, and total beverage servings, excluding tap water, have experienced a 6% drop, a decline of 2.7 billion servings, according to NPD's report "Beverages at Foodservice: Satisfying Our Thirst for Beverages."