Most Markets Continued To Experience Traffic Declines in Third Quarter, Says NPD

The U.S. was not alone in continuing to see traffic declines in the third quarter last year, reports The NPD Group. While the U.S. saw a slight traffic decline of 0.7%, other major economies continued to struggle, especially in Europe.

Traffic fell another 2.4% in the United Kingdom and 2.6% in Spain. Both markets have, like the U.S., been significantly affected by housing crashes. Other major E.U. economies saw smaller declines. Traffic in France fell. 0.9%, Germany was off 0.7% and Italy was down 0.5%.

Traffic in Canada was off a surprising 1%. Canada has outperformed most of the developed world in foodservice traffic and sales during the worldwide economic downturn.

Foodservice in Asia continued to grow. Traffic surged an incredible 16.2% in China and was up 0.7% in Australia, a new market for NPD tracking. Traffic in Japan was flat.

NPD previously forecast a 1% traffic increase for both the fourth quarter 2010 and the first quarter this year in the U.S.