Food and Drinking places see Decline in Month to Month Sales

Statscan - The total seasonally adjusted sales for the food services and drinking places industry was estimated at $3.8 billion in December 2007, down 1.2% compared with November.

All sectors of the industry posted lower sales relative to November. Sales for full-service restaurants fell 0.9% and sales for limited-service eating places were down 1.7%. These two sectors accounted for over 86% of the sales for the industry in December. Sales in the special food services sector, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, declined 0.5%. Sales in the drinking places sector also fell 0.5%.

All provinces except Quebec saw lower sales between November and December. The largest sales decreases were in Nova Scotia (-5.3%), Newfoundland and Labrador (-4.7%), and British Colombia (-3.0%). Quebec recorded a small sales increase of 0.2%.