America’s Fast-Casual Dining Boom Is Over
- Growth slowing as fast-food and mom-and-pop joints preferred
- Trend was supposed to be the future of restaurant dining
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Fresh ingredients, no tipping and sleek design made fast-casual restaurants a darling of the millennial customers every business strives to attract.
The hot streak is over. The category’s once-enviable growth looks like it’s hit a plateau. This year, U.S. fast-casual sales growth will slow to between 6 percent and 7 percent from about 8 percent in 2016, according to industry consultant Pentallect Inc. In each of the prior five years, sales had grown between 10 percent and 11 percent.