Restaurant visits in the second quarter were down year over year as inflation and rising prices saw consumers cut back on spending.

Physical and online traffic to restaurants slumped by 2% over a year ago and remain 6% below pre-pandemic levels in Q2 2019, according to data from The NPD Group. Consumer restaurant spending increased 2% year over year and by 3% over pre-pandemic Q2 2019 levels, reflecting increased costs to restaurant-goers.

In addition, visits to quick service restaurants, which represent 82% of total restaurant traffic, declined by 2% year over year and are 3% below pre-pandemic levels for the same period in 2019.  Data from Placer.ai underscores the current reality for QSRs as inflation tempers spending: while year-over-year visits to burger leaders like McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King are up, for example, year-over-three-year visits are down. Meanwhile, smaller regional burger chains are posting impressive numbers. Monthly Yo3Y visits to In-N-Out Burger, Whataburger, SONIC Drive-In, and White Castle in May 2022 grew by 38.5%, 14.0%, 20.8%, and 8.5%, respectively.