Restaurant industry sales grew in September. Dirty sodas are having a moment. Pizza Hut gets nostalgic. These stories and more This Week in Foodservice.

U.S. retail and foodservice sales increased 0.4% in September compared to the previous month, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Sales were up 1.7% from the same period in 2023. This is better than the 0.1% increase from August and the 0.3% increase Dow Jones economists had projected, per a CNBC story. From July through September, total retail sales grew by 2.3%.

Closer to home, sales at eating and drinking places grew 1.0% in September compared to the previous month, per an analysis from the National Restaurant Association. Although the growth of sales at eating and drinking places has slowed from the pandemic recovery period, the trend line remains generally positive, the NRA notes, as sales have grown however slightly for six consecutive months.

Foodservice News

• Full-service restaurants continue to look to different formats for growth. The latest example comes courtesy of brunch concept Wild Eggs, which just acquired 16-unit fast-casual chain Crazy Bowls and Wraps. There is a two-fold plan for growing the Crazy Bowls and Wraps: open more physical locations and use it as a virtual brand inside Wild Eggs locations, per a FSR story.
• Robot restaurants are coming to Walmart. Digital food court Ghost Kitchen Brands is working with a robotics company to operate 20 of its Walmart outlets. Part of this agreement calls for using a beverage-making robot, per a Restaurant Business story. Ghost Kitchen operates multiple restaurant concepts under one roof for pickup or delivery. Some of the concepts it works with include Saladworks, Wow Bao, Quizno’s, Nathan’s Famous and more.

Dirty soda brand Swig was founded in 2010 in St. George, Utah. Image courtesy of Swig

• Everyone knows customizable drinks are having a moment, but dirty sodas are on a trajectory of their own. Searches for this type of beverage are up 609% year over year, per a Food Institute piece citing Yelp data. For the uninitiated, a dirty soda takes an existing soft drink like a cola or root beer and doctors it up with creamers, fruit purees and more. The Food Institute story does a good job of highlighting the many factors fueling dirty soda’s surge in popularity.
• Pizza Hut plans a pint-sized pop-up to draw attention to some updates to its 6” personal pan pizzas. Located in Astoria, Queens in New York City, the small restaurant will seek to evoke a sense of nostalgia by using Tiffany-style lamps, red checkered tablecloths, red plastic cups and more, per a Nation’s Restaurant News story.
• Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is going back to his Chipotle roots while building his executive leadership team. The coffee giant hired Tressie Lieberman to serve as its first global chief brand officer, per a Nation’s Restaurant News story. Niccol and Lieberman worked together at Chipotle. In a statement Niccol said, “…it’s time to tell our story again and reintroduce Starbucks to the world.”
• Chick-fil-A is going to roost in Asia. The company plans to open its first location on the continent in 2025 with a restaurant in Singapore. This is part of a larger plan to make a 10-year, $75 million investment in Asia, per a company release.
• Top Chef winner Danny Garcia is opening a restaurant in New York City’s Flat Iron neighborhood, Eater reports. The idea of the restaurant was a collaborative effort between Garcia and renowned chef James Kent, who passed away in June. Known as Time and Tide, the seafood restaurant was inspired by Kent’s grandmother.

Economic News

• The Conference Board Leading Economic Index declined 0.5% in September for a reading of 99.7. This follows a 0.3% August decline. For the six-month period ending in September, the LEI declined 2.6%, which is greater than the previous six-month period of September 2023 to March 2024.
• Privately-owned housing starts declined 2.9% in September compared to the previous month, per the U.S. Census Bureau. This is also 5.7% less than September 2023. Permits issued for single-family homes increased 0.3% compared to August.
• Industrial production decreased 0.3% in September, per the U.S. Federal Reserve. This comes after a 0.3% August increase. The Federal Reserve attributes the decline, in part, to a strike at a major producer of civilian aircraft. Also, the effects of two hurricanes subtracted an estimated 0.3% from production. For the third quarter as a whole, industrial production declined at an annual rate of 0.6%.
• For the week ending October 12, 2024, initial claims declined by 19,000 for a total of 241,000, the U.S. Department of Labor reported. After last week’s surprising surge in jobless claims, economists polled by Reuters had projected this week’s total to reach 260,000. The 4-week moving average was 236,250, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week.