Right along with that little uptick in the economy we've been hearing about this week comes more good news: Florida restaurants actually did a teeny bit better this year than they did last year. Florida Trend reports that a study compiled by NPD Group, which analyzes American foodservice trends, found that Florida was one of three Southeastern states that showed a 2 percent increase in traffic (Georgia and Alabama did equally well), even as the rest of the country was facing empty tables and stagnant sales -- nationally, restaurant sales fell by 3 percent in January.
That's nice for moderately priced chains, it turns out, but still not so great for small independents, getting whacked hardest. A Chicago research firm, Technomic, estimates that 20,000 restaurants will fail in the next three years.
