Jim Woods

It's No Picnic for Restaurants

by Jim Woods   01/12/09

Winners

Among fast-food restaurants, McDonald's (MCD) (change in net difference score = +3) is showing clear signs of momentum.

And in the moderate casual category, the percentage of consumers saying they'll spend more money at California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) experienced a surprising move upward (+3).

Losers

On the down side, Outback Steakhouse (-5) showed the biggest decline of any chain in the survey, followed by P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB) (-4) and Red Lobster (-4), which is owned by Darden Restaurants (DRI).

Keep an eye out for upcoming survey results on restaurant spending, because, historically, this is one of the first areas to improve when the economy begins to recover.

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Jim Woods is a Senior Editor for OptionsZone.com. To learn more about him, read his bio here.

The ChangeWave Alliance Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its Network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.