Bloomington and Normal collected more than $9.1 million in food and beverage taxes last budget year. That's up 29% from 2019 — 28% for Bloomington and 30% for Normal.
And those numbers cut against a national trend which shows people have not entirely returned to restaurants after the pandemic. National Restaurant Association data taken from state-of-the-industry reports showed only a 15.5% increase in U.S. restaurant revenue over the same period.
Nationally, there was an 11% jump from 2022-2023 based on projected sales for this year. The single-year increase in Normal last budget year (April 2022 to March 2023) was 14%. In Bloomington, that jump was 9.5%. The data is not adjusted for price increases in the industry.
Normal City Manager Pam Reece said it's hard to say exactly why the Twin Cities are different.
"I would suspect it's a combination of a number of things. Our community has grown. We have more residents. We have a larger workforce. And we have had more restaurants come into the community," said Reece.
Some national analysts have noted 43% fewer meals dining out after work than before the pandemic. Many but not all of those who did not go to restaurants are ordering take-home food instead of eating out.
In Bloomington-Normal and the rest of the nation, finding workers remains a challenge in the food service industry. Nationally, 47% of restaurant operators said they expected competition to be more intense this year, according to the restaurant association. And, 92% of operators said the cost of food is a significant issue for their restaurants.
