ArrowStream Foodservice Blog

Restaurant Sales Solid in December but Still Need to Monitor in 2020

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Jan 23, 2020 7:54:30 AM

Despite restaurant retail sales being up 4.9 percent from the previous year, menu prices up 3.1 percent, and traffic higher by 1.8 percent, industry growth appears to be slowing with the 12-month traffic gain the smallest since spring 2018. Further, restaurants carried the smallest share of total retail sales since April. 

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Menu Price Inflation Continues to Outpace Grocery Stores

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Jan 16, 2020 9:56:16 AM

The premium in the food-away-from-home index (restaurants) to food-at-home index (grocery stores) is a record large.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Beef Price Volatility

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Jan 9, 2020 9:39:06 AM

ArrowStream economist, David Maloni, noted in this week's Maloni Report that the U.S. November beef imports were better than expected, up 10.6 percent from prior year.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

French Fry Supply Concerns

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Dec 18, 2019 1:18:26 PM

Adverse early-fall weather caused significant damage to the fall potato crop in the U.S. However, David Maloni, ArrowStream's chief economist has said, "the USDA won’t provide an updated output forecast until January 10, 2020."

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Topics: Market Intelligence

China Impacting Beef Prices

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Dec 12, 2019 10:35:59 AM

ArrowStream economists noted this week that U.S. October beef imports were up slightly from the prior year.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Strong Pork Exports to China Now But What About Next Year?

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Dec 4, 2019 8:37:20 AM

October pork belly disappearance (consumption and exports) was 4 percent better than prior year, while total pork disappearance was up 4.9 percent.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Restaurant Traffic Struggles

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Nov 20, 2019 1:25:00 PM

ArrowStream economists noted this week that October's restaurant traffic in the U.S. was nothing to get excited about, up just .8 percent from the prior year.

"As the chart shows, year-over-year restaurant traffic has been below trend-line growth for the last several months," said David Maloni, ArrowStream's chief economist. "Sure, we are going up against some big comparable months when delivery was taking off last year. However, this should be watched closely."

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Beef Supply May Be Concerning

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Nov 14, 2019 7:10:22 PM

This week David Maloni, ArrowStream economist, noted that several times this fall, the data seems to indicate that the top in the U.S. cattle herd has occurred.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

China's Not-So-Scary Pork Problem

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Nov 7, 2019 11:43:33 AM

ArrowStream economist, David Maloni, reported this week that the USDA is forecasting China to import an additional 1.9 billion pounds of pork in 2020 due to African Swine Fever, noting that more than one third is expected to come from the U.S.

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Topics: Market Intelligence

Restaurants Capturing Consumer Share at Record Levels

Posted by Kate Hubbard on Oct 31, 2019 10:55:57 AM

Our economists noted last week that September’s overall restaurant sales data was solid, carrying a near-record percentage of total retail sales. David Maloni, chief economist at ArrowStream, points out in the chart that this has been a building trend for some time.

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Topics: Market Intelligence