National Restaurant Association Launches Improved Restaurant TrendMapper Service

Online subscription offers the latest trends and analysis affecting the restaurant industry to help operators and other industry professionals enhance business performance

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National Restaurant Association

Jun 17, 2014, 11:28 ET

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Restaurant Association has launched a new and improved version of its Restaurant TrendMapper online subscription service. The service helps restaurateurs, analysts and allied industry professionals keep up-to-date with the latest economic indicators and trends that affect their business environment. These trends include the Restaurant Performance Index (RPI), sales, employment, capital expenditures, and wholesale food and menu price inflation.

"Restaurant TrendMapper is a unique resource of industry data and analysis in easy-reference form, which eliminates the need to constantly dig through complicated data files to get a snapshot of what's going on in the industry," said Bruce Grindy, chief economist for the National Restaurant Association and author of Restaurant TrendMapper. "The service provides running analysis of key industry indicators that are crucial for tracking trends and planning strategically for the future."

"For example, keeping an eye on food and commodity prices is helpful for menu planning; if beef is projected to become more expensive, the operator might temporarily cut back and promote other proteins until price pressures ease," Grindy said.

"Restaurant TrendMapper also contains useful data and analysis for suppliers to the restaurant industry. Our monthly tracking breaks down capital expenditure plans by industry segment, which can help allied professionals anticipate their own business conditions in the months ahead," Grindy added.

Originally created in 2002, Restaurant TrendMapper features continually updated National Restaurant Association research and forecasting, as well as analysis of the latest data from government sources, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. Presented in both text and chart formats, Restaurant TrendMapper also features downloadable data files for use outside of the online platform.

Additional topics covered include wage and hour trends, tourism, restaurant locations, macro-economic indicators, and select state and regional data. The service is also the exclusive source for aggregated data from the National Restaurant Association's monthly RPI and Industry Tracking Survey.

The NRA's research and analysis have a long-standing reputation of the highest authority, neutrality and accuracy both inside and outside the industry. Proceeds from NRA research publications are applied to conducting additional industry research. NRA members receive exclusive pricing on Restaurant TrendMapper and all other research publications.

For additional information and to subscribe, visit Restaurant.org/TrendMapper.

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SOURCE National Restaurant Association