Top Restaurants and Retail Chains That Will Win Big This Father’s Day

June 13, 2019 / by inMarket

While Mother’s Day is revered as one of the biggest spending days of the year, Father’s Day is a more modest but growing market. Spending on Father’s Day in the U.S. has grown 70% (or $6.6 billion) over the past decade, and shoppers are expected to spend a record high of $16 billion for dads nationwide. As this day for dad increasingly becomes a bigger spending holiday, inMarket’s first-party SDK derived location data has predicted the restaurant and retail chains that will receive the biggest boosts in consumer traffic this Father’s Day.

Get the full results for this deep-dive report on Father’s Day — now available here.

Restaurant Winners

Dads really like their meat. Eight of the top twenty restaurants are comprised of steakhouses and BBQ chains, suggesting that wherever the ribs or steaks are, families will be there as well (be sure to bring wipes).

There’s a definite type of ambiance that dads are attracted to on Father’s Day — families are predicted to keep meals casual this year. While all restaurants anticipate a boost in foot traffic due to this holiday, upscale restaurants like Morton’s Steakhouse and The Capital Grille see much smaller increases in foot traffic than casual chains like Texas Roadhouse.
Pizza joints like Simple Simon’s Pizza and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza see an increase in foot traffic, but are not expected to be a top choiceamongst those celebrating Father’s Day.

Retail Chain Winners

Amongst the top ten chains with highest increase in foot traffic, movie theaters are expected to see higher foot traffic. While blockbuster films like Incredibles 2 and Ocean’s 8 caused visitations to spike in 2018, new hits like The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Men in Black: International will also likely drive families into theaters on Father’s Day.
Almost half of the top twenty chains, comprised of Outdoor and Sporting Goods chains, are predicted to see higher than average foot traffic. Want to make dad happy this year? Get him a new tackle box or new golf clubs.
While two auto chains, Fix Auto Worldwide and Gerber Collision, are included amongst the top 20, they are the exception as a majority of auto chains are expected to see a drop in foot traffic.
Surprisingly, while tools and home maintenance are typical “dad” interests, hardware and home improvement chains like The Home Depot and Lowe’s are expected to see a significant decrease during Father’s Day.

How We Did It

inMarket combined years of precise location data and AI to predict the big winners based on their visitation frequency growth on Father’s Day. We first aggregated each location’s average traffic prior to Father’s Day, then observed how much visits increased on Father’s Day, and finally ranked each location by percent of visit growth from highest to lowest.

So What? Why Should I Care?

Next to using a crystal ball, observing foot traffic patterns is one of the best predictors for consumer behaviors and holiday trends.Get the full results for this deep-dive report on Father’s Day — now available here.

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