Sales in drinking places and bars decreased to $2.5 billion in 2019 across Canada with Alberta posting the largest decrease at 9.4 per cent, according to a report released Friday by Statistics Canada.
Six provinces experienced a drop in sales including British Columbia at 4.9 per cent and Quebec at 9.5 per cent.
But Alberta did see a hike of 11.7 per cent in 2019 in sales in special food services, which includes food service contractors, caterers and mobile food services. In Canada, sales in that sector rose to $5.9 billion with the largest increases in Quebec at 8.6 per cent and British Columbia at five per cent.
StatsCan said annual sales of food services and drinking places totalled $74.5 billion in 2019, up 3.5 per cent from 2018.
“A large portion of this growth is due to menu inflation as the prices for food purchased from restaurants increased 2.7 per cnet in 2019 compared with 2018, while the prices for alcoholic beverages served in licensed establishments increased 1.8 per cent over the same period. The increase in food sales also coincided with growth in the Canadian economy and low unemployment throughout 2019,” it said.
“Sales increased at full-service restaurants (+3.7 per cent), limited-service eating places (+3.4 per cent) and special food services (+4.5 per cent) in 2019 compared with 2018. Sales at drinking places (-0.5 per cent) were down in the same period.”
In the month of December, sales in the food services and drinking places subsector edged up 0.1 per cent to $6.3 billion throughout Canada. Higher sales were reported in full-service restaurants (+0.4 per cent), limited-service eating places (+0.3 per cent) and drinking places (+0.5 per cent). Sales declined in special food services (-3.2 per cent) following two consecutive month-over-month increases, said the federal agency, adding that year-over-year sales were up by two per cent.
In Alberta, sales fell by 0.2 per cent to $803.1 million in December but on an annual basis they were up by 1.5 per cent.
Mario Toneguzzi is a business reporter in Calgary.
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