With the last blasts of the winter season behind them, Americans are emerging from hibernation. That awakening is good news for quick-service restaurants whose sales suffered along with much of the dining industry as high unemployment and economic uncertainty kept many people eating at home to save money on grub during the recession.
Thin wallets and tight-fisted consumers led quick-service restaurants' industry-wide same-store sales figures to fall steadily throughout 2009 and to get even worse in the first two months of 2010 as snowy weather deterred diners from driving down to the local burger joint. The change in season, however, seems to have coincided with a turn in business for fast food chains, with brisk business in March expected to produce the industry's first monthly uptick in same-store sales in one year.
Give credit to "pent-up demand for dining out" following bad weather across much of the U.S. in January and February, says Citi ( C – news – people ) analyst Gregory R. Badishkanian, who cites improving employment figures and consumer confidence as the catalysts that unleashed the craving for fast food. The upsurge has continued into the beginning of April, according to Badishkanian's channel checks.
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