There Are Too Many Restaurants in the U.S. Now What?


Skift Take

Corporate competition and diner retention strategies are important for big business, but don't forget the volume of restaurants in the U.S. directly affects the people that run and work in restaurants.

Last month, Dunkin’s CEO called the U.S. “over-restauranted,” meaning that there are, quite literally, an unsustainable amount of restaurants in the country as compared to the population. “There are now more than 620,000 eating and drinking places in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the number of restaurants is growing at about twice the rate of the population,” said an article in yesterday’s New York Times. These facts are familiar and we’ve heard them before: Americans are spend