Food services and drinking places

Total seasonally adjusted sales for the food services and drinking places industry increased by 0.6% to $4.0 billion in May. With the exception of a temporary setback in March, sales in this industry have grown every month so far this year.

The largest sector of the industry, full-service restaurants, saw sales increase by 0.4% in May. Sales in this sector, which is comprised of restaurants where patrons order and pay for meals at their table, were 9.0% higher in May compared with the same month of 2007.

Sales in the limited-service eating places sector grew by 0.9% in May. Sales in this sector, which is characterized by restaurants where meals are ordered and paid for at the counter, were 5.3% higher in May compared with May 2007.

Sales in the special food services sector, which comprises contractors, social caterers and mobile food services, grew by 0.4% from April to May and stood 1.4% higher compared with May 2007.

In the drinking places sector, sales edged up 0.1% between April and May. Year-over-year, this sector continued to show negative growth in May.

Prince Edward Island was the only province to post lower sales in May, while the other provinces saw sales increases of 2.0% or less.

Note: Data prior to September 2007 from the new Monthly Survey of Food Services and Drinking Places were backcast to January 1998 using the old Monthly Survey of Restaurants, Caterers and Taverns. While every measure was taken to account for changes in survey concepts and design, some caution should be taken when comparing current estimates with those made prior to September 2007. Likewise, caution should also be exercised when using the seasonally adjusted estimates, as the seasonal adjustment factors are calculated using data from both the new survey as well as the backcast data.

Available on CANSIM: table 355-0006.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2419.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Marc Racette (613-951-2924; fax: 613-951-6696; marc.racette@statcan.gc.ca) or Pierre Felx (613-951-0075; pierre.felx@statcan.gc.ca), Service Industries Division.

Table(s).