According to the Chicago-based marketing research firm, Dataessential, 10.2 percent of U.S. food establishments have permanently closed since the start of the pandemic.
In hard numbers, there were 778,807 eateries and restaurants operating right before the onset of Covid-19 early last year. The data reveals that 79,438 of them are now closed for good.
The hardest hit were French restaurants. They shuttered at a rate of 15.3 percent.
Conversely, establishments with notable burger concepts took a gentler hit of 7.5 percent. Thai restaurants fared nearly as well.
Pizzerias weren’t mentioned in the report, although from numerous mom-and-pop operators we spoke to across the country over the past several months, many claimed their sales spiked 15 to 30 percent during the Covid crisis.
Dataessential CEO, Jack Li, says closures are noticeably slowing, regardless of the type of cuisine establishments serve.
“The future is bright for those restaurants who have learned to adapt to the host of new challenges facing them in our new normal,” he noted.
(Lead photo by Ilya Mashkov)