Visualizing COVID-19’s Financial Impact On Local Businesses

To quantify the impact of COVID-19 on local businesses across the U.S., the data science team at Womply is conducting ongoing, daily data analysis of transaction trends year-over-year at 400,000 local businesses across the country, including 48,000 restaurants, 10,000 grocery stores, 4,600 bars, 64,000 retail shops, and 6,400 lodging businesses. You can view that ongoing analysis here.

Here’s what the data revealed about last week’s impact on local businesses nationwide:

Restaurants

• Weekly revenue was down 57% YoY. Daily revenue levels bottomed out on Sunday, March 22 at 68% below the same day last year. Revenue seems to be trending upward again, though still well below neutral.

Grocery stores

• Consumer spending at grocery stores is returning to a semblance of normalcy. After daily revenue variance topped out at 100% YoY above neutral on March 16, sales have trended downward, averaging 18% above natural for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week. Weekly revenue is up 24% YoY.

Bars

• Weekly revenue is down 47% YoY. Daily revenue levels bottomed out on Sunday, March 22 at 66% below the same day last year. Revenue seems to be trending upward again, though still well below neutral.

Lodging

• Sales at lodging businesses continue to trend downward. Weekly revenue is down 83% YoY (down from 75% the previous week). Daily revenue levels dropped to as low as 87% under neutral YoY last Tuesday.

Firearm and sporting goods stores

• Driven by consumer panic to buy guns and ammo, daily sales at firearm and sporting goods stores continue to hover at least 70% above neutral YoY. Weekly revenue is up 97% YoY. 

Arts and entertainment

• Arts and entertainment businesses are entering their worst sales days to date. Weekly revenue is down 91% YoY. Daily revenue levels dropped to as low as 132% below the same day last year YoY last Thursday.

Retail

• Local retail still hadn’t yet felt the full force of social distancing measures. Weekly revenue was up 10% YoY.