The Daily Reckoning reports:
"Another industry built on credit-fueled consumption, and thus, likely to get leveled during the great deleveraging, is looking a little gluttonous right about now," writes Addison in today's issue of The 5 Min. Forecast.Just think of all that commercial real estate that will not be needed.
"U.S. restaurant expansion over the past 20 years has vastly outpaced population growth."
"Since 1990, the number of bars and restaurants in the U.S. has grown 49%, to over 537,000. The American population has grown only 23% in that period," Addison continues.
"Growth in the restaurant industry has even outpaced the U.S.'s appetite for squandering money. According to the National Restaurant Association, in 1985 Americans spent around 40 cents of every "food dollar" in restaurants. Today, we're closer to 48 cents on the dollar, a 20% bump.
"Back in the 1950's, the average Joe spent just 25 cents of his 'food dollar' in restaurants. If we're to return to anything even resembling a post-Depression, post-War, way of life... tens of thousands of restaurants will go under."
