Foot Traffic in King County Restaurants and Grocery Stores

I. Introduction

This report provides an analysis of King County foot traffic to restaurants and grocery stores in July 2020. The data in this report comes from SafeGraph, a company that works with cell phone location data.
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II. Key Findings

1. Restaurants and grocery stores are in top 5 most-visited locations
  • There is a total of 3,794,372 visits in King County in July 2020.
  • Restaurants are the most-visited places, accounting for one-fifth of foot traffic in King County July 2020.
  • Grocery stores are in the 5th place (5 times less than restaurant), accounting for around 4.4% of foot traffic in King County July 2020.
2. Restaurant foot traffic fluctuate more than grocery stores
  • Restaurant foot traffic fluctuate dramatically. On the other hand, people go grocery shopping more regularly.
  • There is a total of more than 20,000 restaurant visits each day in July, except for the 4th where foot traffic dropped by 33%.
  • The last day of July, restaurant foot traffic reached the peak of 29,851 visits.
  • The total of grocery store foot traffic is less than 7,000 visits each day. Similarly to restaurant traffic on the 4th, there was a 10.9% decrease in visits.
  • Grocery store foot traffic reached the peak of 6,212 visits on the day before July 4th.
  • People would prefer eating out rather than grocery shopping.
3. People tend to visit restaurants on Friday
  • There are 3 specific categories in restaurants: full-service, limited-service, and bars.
  • The foot traffic to those specific locations followed the same pattern: People are less likely to visit restaurants on Sunday and most likely to go out on Friday. The foot traffic dropped by 41% from Friday to Sunday.
4. People tend to go grocery shopping on Friday
  • There are 2 specific categories in grocery: supermarkets and convenience stores.
  • Similar to restaurant foot traffic pattern, people are less likely to go grocery shopping on weekends, which dropped by 32% in supermarkets and 47% in convenience stores. The foot traffic peaks on Friday.
5. Starbucks is the most-visited restaurant in King County
  • There is a total of 66,575 visits in Starbucks in July 2020, which is almost double the foot traffic to McDonald’s.
  • Top 3 restaurants people most likely visit: Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway. Therefore, fast food restaurants are the most popular places people would choose to eat out.
6. Safeway is the most-visited grocery store in King County
  • Top 3 stores people most likely to go shop at in King County: Safeway, QFC, and 7-Eleven.