Vol. XXII, No. 10, October 2022

  1. Pumpkin breaks record for largest ever grown in North America
  2. Drinking is falling out of vogue
  3. Getting LBE design right the first time
  4. Healthy kids' meals trending in the restaurant industry
  5. Are Dave & Buster's comparable store sales really booming?
  6. How important are restaurant reviews?
  7. Participation in Halloween-related activities to be at pre-pandemic levels
  8. Pickleball's popularity and hospitality venues growing
  9. Interest in non-alcoholic beverages on the decline
  10. Define your ideal customer - or be magnetic to no one
  11. Davis Mega Maze Colossal Adventures' corn maze among country's best
  12. Keeping up with guests' increasingly dynamic preferences
  13. Robotics creating pizzatainment
  14. More thoughts on socialized gaming, aka competitive socializing
  15. Can competitive socialization work with F1 simulators?

[ Index of Previous eNewsletters ]

Are Dave & Buster's comparable store sales really booming?

The Dave & Buster's chain, with 142 stores (they also own 52 Main Event stores), reported that their Dave & Buster's comparable store sales increased 9.6% in the second quarter ending July 31, 2022, compared to the same 2nd quarter in pre-pandemic 2019. Comparable store walk-in sales were up 13% and special event sales were down 23.1% compared to the same period in 2019. This sounds very impressive. But is it that great of an improvement, and does it indicate a long-term trend?

Part of the increase is due to an effective 11% increase in the Power Card purchases on a per-transaction basis that they achieved last October by raising the minimum Power Card purchase. They also increased some of the game prices. Gaming is the majority of Dave & Buster's revenues. From an inflation perspective, sales need to grow at least as fast as inflation to stay even. A 9.6% increase in comparable store sales is barely greater than the current inflation rate. So, a large part of any increase in sales is not necessarily due to better performance but instead just keeping pace with inflation. This also suggests that walk-in attendance did not increase for comparable stores versus the same period in 2019.

Regardless, can D&B's stores be expected at least to maintain this level of sales into the future? Probably not. First, a lot of the increase is being driven by pent-up demand that is only temporary. Second, in a sense, reopening their is somewhat analogous to opening a new D&B store. D&B has found that new store sales volumes in year two after opening are approximately 10% to 20% lower than in year one.

Vol. XXII, No. 10, October 2022

  1. Pumpkin breaks record for largest ever grown in North America
  2. Drinking is falling out of vogue
  3. Getting LBE design right the first time
  4. Healthy kids' meals trending in the restaurant industry
  5. Are Dave & Buster's comparable store sales really booming?
  6. How important are restaurant reviews?
  7. Participation in Halloween-related activities to be at pre-pandemic levels
  8. Pickleball's popularity and hospitality venues growing
  9. Interest in non-alcoholic beverages on the decline
  10. Define your ideal customer - or be magnetic to no one
  11. Davis Mega Maze Colossal Adventures' corn maze among country's best
  12. Keeping up with guests' increasingly dynamic preferences
  13. Robotics creating pizzatainment
  14. More thoughts on socialized gaming, aka competitive socializing
  15. Can competitive socialization work with F1 simulators?

[ Index of Previous eNewsletters ]