Q4 Crunch Time: Foodservice Foot Traffic & Trend Insights

Foot traffic and consumer trends are shifting across the foodservice landscape—from fast-casual to full-service to quick-service segments. The Food Institute hosted a data-driven discussion on the factors shaping restaurant performance in the second half of the year.

R.J. Hottovy of Placer.ai and Chris Campbell of The Food Institute broke down cross-channel trends, examining how menu promotions, pricing strategies, and regional growth patterns are influencing customer visits and revenue.

Key discussion points included:

How new menu launches and promotions—like Panera’s Taylor Swift sourdough menu, McDonald’s combo pricing, and Taco Bell’s Y2K deal—are impacting foot traffic

Coffee market dynamics and pricing effects on Dutch Bros, Dunkin’, Starbucks, and Luckin

Casual-dining resurgence led by Chili’s, Texas Roadhouse, and Applebee’s promotional strategies

The performance of salad chains like sweetgreen in a landscape of price sensitivity and at-home alternatives

Regional market opportunities and challenges, including over-expansion in Southern markets and growth potential in Idaho and Montana

Emerging cross-visitation trends between restaurants, grocers, and convenience stores

Whether you work in operations, marketing, or strategic planning, this conversation offers actionable insights to inform menu, marketing, and location strategies—plus a forward-looking perspective for 2025 planning.

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Sponsored by:

Placer.ai

Placer.ai is the most advanced foot traffic analytics platform allowing anyone with a stake in the physical world to instantly generate insights into any property for a deeper understanding of the factors that drive success. It is the first platform that fully empowers professionals in retail, commercial real estate, dining, and more to truly understand and maximize their offline activities with reporting capabilities that include visit trends, True Trade Areas, cannibalization/void analysis, demographics, cross-shopping, and favorite places.

To learn more, visit https://www.placer.ai/.