Detroit Restaurant Revenue Is Low but Increasing, Survey Says

The Detroit restaurant scene has seen rapid growth over the past few years but are restaurants turning a profit? A survey finds that Detroit restaurants compared with other top U.S. cities came in last for average revenue.

The data was collected from clients of international payment processing company First Data in partnership with business marketing firm Alignable. Analysts looked at 25 major U.S. cities comparing revenue, meal prices, and transactions for the past six months as well as year-over-year growth.

The report finds that Detroit restaurants averaged $191,187.99 in revenue for the past six months, behind El Paso, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The average meal price was also lower than most cities — $27 — and survey results showed that prices actually dropped by approximately 5.9 percent year-over-year. In comparison, Boston had the highest average meal price at $44.02 with $657,680.93 in average revenue.

Despite the low profit stats in Detroit, year-over-year restaurants showed substantial growth gains. While average transactions were fairly low compared to other cities included in the survey, Detroit showed a 9 percent growth in year-over-year transactions suggesting that more people are dining out. Average revenue year-over-year also saw a modest average growth gain of 2.5 percent. Overall the 25 biggest cities saw revenue increase over the past six months despite some locations experiencing a drop in the price per meal ticket. See how other cities stacked up in the charts below.