How are consumers reacting to higher restaurant prices? Which chain is mulling its financial options? How is Firehouse Subs spicing up its guest experience? Answers to these questions and more This Week in Foodservice.

Restaurants at airports are poised for takeoff once again.

P.F. Chang’s opened its first airport location in Mexico, restaurant development + design reported.

And Protein Bar, a better-for-you, fast-casual concept, is opening locations in airports in Salt Lake City International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and New York City’s LaGuardia Airport in 2024. Protein Bar will open one in Boise, Idaho, in 2025, the company reported.

Restaurant chains like P.F. Chang’s and Protein Bar are targeting airports for growth with good reason. Airports Council International World projects air passenger traffic will reach 9.5 billion in 2024, which is a 10% growth rate.

This comes on the heels of 8.7 billion air travelers in 2023, which represents a 30.6% increase from 2022 and 95% of 2019’s total. Through June of 2024, total air passenger traffic was up 11% compared to the same period in 2023, per the ACI World Airport Traffic Forecast.

In other words, the number of travelers passing through airports continues to rise. And with airlines offering little more than snacks to most passengers, the need to feed hungry travelers seems poised to grow.

Foodservice News

• Consumers are ready to spend during the upcoming holiday season. In fact, 88% of people are prepared to spend more during the upcoming holiday season than during a regular night out, per a Robb Report story. Citing data from Tock, the story adds that 17% of consumers plan to increase their spending by 50% or more. Cheers to what hopefully is a strong holiday season for the foodservice industry!
• Despite a strong holiday outlook, consumers continue to feel the impact of higher restaurant prices. Along those lines, 41% of consumers say they plan to decrease the frequency with which they use foodservice, per Technomic. Only 24% of consumers plan to increase their foodservice use. In citing why they plan to reduce their foodservice use, 76% cited “prices are too high.”
• Did you know that 72% of orders placed through third-party delivery companies show up earlier than promised? That’s according to a Restaurant Business study on consumers and third-party delivery. Another interesting nugget from this study was the fact that independent restaurants fare better than chains when it comes to order accuracy. Burger restaurants got high marks for customization, while that was not exactly the case for Asian-themed restaurants.
• Leaders at Hooters are starting to get the chain’s nest in order. The company has met with leaders and advisers amid revenue declines and store closures, per an FSR story citing some information from Bloomberg. Of course, Hooters is not alone in facing financial pressures. Red Lobster has filed for and emerged from bankruptcy. TGI Fridays had a deal to sell the company to a franchisee collapse in recent weeks. And that does not even take into account the many other chains that have filed for bankruptcy this year.
• Chick-fil-A is prepared to fly across the Atlantic. The chicken chain has inked a development deal to open five restaurants in the United Kingdom over the next two years. The company will spend $100 million over the next decade in developing its first major international market. Chick-fil-A has more than 3,000 units across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.
• Firehouse Subs is bringing back its hot sauce bar at participating locations. A favorite among its legions of loyal fans, the chain put this feature in mothballs in March of 2021. That was during the height of the pandemic when fears of surface transmission of COVID-19 were high. Firehouse Subs created a video to help celebrate the return of its hot sauce bar.
• Polar Leasing Company opened a depot in Oklahoma. Based in Copan, Ok., Superman Express will support customers in the greater Tulsa and Wichita region. Polar Leasing provides walk-in freezers and refrigerated rental units.

Economic News

• Personal income increased 0.2% in August, according to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income increased, and personal consumption expenditures increased 0.2%. The PCE price index increased 0.1%.
• The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index dipped to 98.7 in September after climbing to 105.6 in August. This was the largest decline since August 2021, per The Conference Board. The Present Situation Index declined 10.3 points to a level of 124.3. The Expectations Index came in at 81.7 in September, a 4.6-point decline . Consumer assessment of current business conditions and their outlook about future labor market conditions were key factors in the decline.
• Initial jobless claims declined by 4,000 to a level of 218,000 for the week ending September 21, 2024, per the U.S. Department of Labor. This is the lowest level since mid-May and economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims. The 4-week moving average was 224,750, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week. These data points continue to show the ongoing stability of the jobs market.
• August sales of new single-family homes totaled 716,000, a decline of 4.7% compared to the previous month, per data from U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is also 9.8% less than August of 2023. Despite the decline, August’s new home sales beat economists’ forecast of 700,000, per a Reuters poll.
• New orders for durable manufactured goods were flat in August, per the U.S. Census Bureau. This follows a 9.9% July increase and, ironically, it beat expectations for the month which called for a 3% decline in durable goods orders, per a MarketWatch story. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 0.2 percent. Electrical equipment, appliances, and components, up two of the last three months, drove the increase, $0.3 billion or 1.9 percent to $14.4 billion.
• Gross domestic product increased 3.0% in the second quarter of 2024, per the third estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The third estimate is considered a more complete source of data than what was available for the first two estimates. The fact that GDP held steady at 3% growth for all three estimates is a positive indication of the stability of the U.S. economy, as this Yahoo! Finance story.