According to one analyst, not even the Pokemon Go craze can save the restaurant industry.
During much of the recovery from the financial crisis, restaurant spending has been a retail highlight as other areas, like department stores, have struggled. According to Stifel Financial Corp. analyst Paul Westra, however, recent surveys point to the start of a serious decline.
“Today, we adopt a bearish outlook for restaurants as we confidently believe that, at a minimum, the simultaneous -150 basis points to -200bps deceleration of restaurant industry comps across all categories during the second quarter within our most recent Stifel Sales Survey reflects the start of a U.S. Restaurant Recession,” Westra and his team said in a note…