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.