Recent Posts
- Boston Market's two-buck chick
- Are you celebrating Christmas or the holidays?
- Change must come, but what kind of change?
- What's wrong with this picture?
- Do you want living wages with that?
- Re-allocation hurts this analyst
- Prepared meals: How dangerous are they?
- Discuss: Burgers and menu labeling
- Chipotle on "hold"
- Common spices, processed foods ... really?
Recent Comments
- Soul Delicious Restaurant on Will the bailout help your restaurants?
- Joseph Lee on His bank account kicked up a notch
- Bundling Works on Boston Market's two-buck chick
- Anon on Julia Stewart: Improve Employees' Lives
- Rich on Julia Stewart: Improve Employees' Lives
Most Commented On
- McDonald's "gay support" issue (30)
- Micatrotto: 'LIke a very large restaurant.' (27)
- Making Servers Pay: Cold-Hearted or cost-effective? (20)
- Same old, same old integrity (10)
- Julia Stewart: Improve Employees' Lives (9)
Archives
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- January 2006
Blog
No optimism, just caution, at Darden
June 25, 2008
Restaurant analysts generally agree that governent rebate checks provided the boost to same-store sales in May. Darden Restaurants, for example, the country's largest casual-dining company, posted a 2 percent overall gain. So, during the company's Q4 conference call, UBS analyst Michael Binetti wondered aloud if it's "reasonable" to assume sales will hold up after the rebate money runs out. CEO Clarence Otis had this to say in response:
"Probably not reasonable. What we saw in May, it is hard to gauge. We do get weekly Knapp-Track numbers. And our best guess as we look at that data is a lift of maybe a point on a same-store sales basis. But that data does not reflect the run up we have seen in June in some of the costs that consumers are facing, especially gasoline. And so we would say there is still enough going on out there to be fairly cautious.... We are approaching a relatively uncertain environment with caution."

Otis: Currently cautious
Posted by David Farkas on June 25, 2008 | Comments (0)


