U.S. full-service chains such as Olive Garden, Applebee’s and Chili’s saw a steep, 5.1% drop in sales at established restaurants during the week prior to the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, data showed on Wednesday.

While limited in scope, the data appears to back restaurant executives’ claims that the tense and tumultuous U.S. election dented their business.

“Sales were down seriously around the country,” for the week ending Nov. 6, said Malcolm Knapp, a restaurant consultant whose Knapp-Track service monitors restaurant sales and guest counts.

“The uncertainty was sky-high,” he said, adding that full-service same-restaurant sales had been down slightly for the week ended Oct. 30.

The same-store sales decline eased to 1.4% for the week of the election, Knapp said. The gyrations at high-end steak houses were even more exaggerated, he said.

本周三发布的一组数据显示，在11月8日美国总统大选之前的一周，包括Olive Garden、Applebee和Chili等知名品牌在内的多家全方位服务型餐饮连锁企业的销售额出现了显著下跌，跌幅达5.1%。

虽然该数据的统计范酬比较有限，但它似乎也验证了一些餐饮业高管的说法，即此次紧张纷乱的总统大选对他们的生意影响不小。

餐饮业咨询顾问马尔科姆·纳普指出：11月6日之前的那一个星期里，“全国餐饮业的销售额都出现了显著下降。”马尔科姆·纳普提供的Knapp-Track服务可以监测餐饮业的销售额和客流量。

“当时的不确定性非常高。”他还指出，直到10月30日之前那一周，美国多家全方位服务型餐饮企业的同店销售额还仅仅只是略有下跌。

纳普表示，等到进入选举进行的那一周，这些餐饮企业的同店销售额的降幅已经回落到1.4%。而高端牛排餐厅的生意受大选影响更为明显。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎