Fresh off a big harvest, Saskatchewan residents decided to treat themselves by going out for dinner.
Updated numbers on the food and beverage business provincially and nationally show Canadians decided November was a good time to enjoy some restaurant service or head to the bar but no where was that more evident than in Saskatchewan.
Sales at food and beverage operations rose nearly two-and-a-half-percent in November in Saskatchewan. That growth topped all the provinces and would be a 30-percent increase if we kept up that pace for a year. To show how out of the ordinary it was, it pushed sales in these hospitality businesses up by nearly 8-percent for the year – about a third of the annual increase came in that month.
Only Nova Scotia and Manitoba topped Saskatchewan’s growth rate in the year-over-year comparison.
Nationally, sales in these businesses rose less than one percent in November so Saskatchewan was really an outlier. The biggest gains nationally were in fast food outlets followed by full-service restaurants. Sales in bars actually continued their downward trend.
