Food services and drinking places, February 2016

Released: 2016-04-29

Sales in the food services and drinking places subsector edged down 0.1% to $5.1 billion in February. Prices for food purchased from restaurants rose 2.7% year over year in February, following a 2.5% increase the previous month.

Chart 1 
Food services and drinking places sales edge down in February

Full-service restaurant industry sales decrease

Sales in the full-service restaurant industry decreased 0.6% in February, down for the second month in a row following December's sharp increase.

The special food services industry group, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services, posted a 0.8% decrease in sales, the sixth consecutive decline.

Sales in the drinking places industry decreased 1.2%, down for the first time in four months.

Receipts at limited-service restaurants recorded their eighth consecutive monthly increase, rising 0.5% in February.

Lower sales in four provinces

Quebec (-0.8%) reported the largest sales decline in dollar terms, the first decrease in four months.

Sales were down 0.9% in British Columbia in February, following two consecutive monthly gains.

Alberta (-0.3%) reported lower sales for the fifth time in six months.

Ontario (+0.3%) accounted for the largest gain in dollar terms, offsetting the decline in January.

Sales in Nova Scotia rose 1.6%, the fourth increase in five months.

Receipts in Saskatchewan were up 0.7%, the third consecutive monthly gain.

Sales in Manitoba rose 0.7% in February, following a 1.5% decrease in January. This was the seventh increase in eight months.

Contact information

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