The dual coronavirus variants, delta and then omicron, have taken a bite out of the industry’s sales recovery.
Restaurants and bars generated $72 billion in sales in January, according to U.S. Census retail sales data this week. That was a decline of nearly 1% from December, when the industry generated $73.1 billion in sales. The numbers are adjusted for seasonal variances.
It also represented the lowest volume of sales since June and was the third such monthly decline in four months.