Food services and drinking places

Current dollar sales for the food services and drinking places industry totalled $4.0 billion in June, down 0.3% from May. This decline follows sales gains in April and May.

According to the Consumer Price Index, the cost of food purchased from restaurants increased 0.9% between May and June.

Sales at full-service restaurants (where patrons order and pay for meals at their table) declined 1.0% in June while sales at limited-service eating places (where meals are ordered and paid for at the counter) were down 0.5%.

Meanwhile, sales were up at special food services (+3.2%) and drinking places (+2.6%) in June.

Among the provinces, Alberta and British Columbia posted the largest sales gains from May. Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia registered the largest decreases.

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 about the redesign of the Monthly Survey of Food Services and Drinking Places, 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.