Yelp: Coronavirus Economic Impact Report, March 24

Coronavirus is quickly reshaping every corner of the U.S. local economy — and Yelp data is reflecting the upheaval in real time.

Consumers are responding to fears of infection, social distancing recommendations, stay-at-home orders and mandated business closures by changing their behavior around eating, shopping, planning their finances, and taking care of their health and beauty. The changes, like the pandemic that spawned them, haven’t hit all of the U.S. in the same way, though every state now reflects, to some degree or another, the new reality of the coronavirus economy. And a big part of that shift is what and where Americans are eating.

Over the past week, as reaction to the outbreak has spread nationwide, consumers have moved toward sourcing food from farms (Community-Supported Agriculture, up 157% in share of daily U.S. consumer actions in their relative root categories on Wednesday from a week earlier) and overseas (imported food stores, up 172%). When they do order from restaurants, standbys for takeout and delivery such as Thai restaurants, pizzerias, and fast food restaurants are gaining consumer interest (up 55%, up 53%, up 53%), partially at the expense of dining-out options that bring together lots of people and different types of food in close proximity (food courts and buffets, both down 32%).

When people do leave their homes, it’s often to get exercise outside, preferably as far from each other as possible. Hiking (up 135%), mountain biking (up 119%), lakes (up 86%), and parks (up 62%) have gained quickly, while bowling and trainers are down (67% and 51%).

The coronavirus also has shaken up personal finances. The extension of the federal tax-filing deadline sent tax services down 26%, while the surging desire for cash in hand with investment values crumbling has boosted check cashing & pay-day loan stores by 37%.

Local economies have shifted in line with the national moves, matching the rise and fall of categories nationwide.

The coastal states continue to experience the biggest shifts in local economies. Notably, Nevada’s shift since March 10, in terms of how its economy has realigned to match the national upheaval, is the largest in the nation, reflecting the enormous impact on the core industries of Las Vegas entertainment and hospitality.

Nationally, when people order restaurant food, it’s overwhelmingly at home. Searches for delivery or takeout have accelerated relative to searches for dine-in options that until recently were prevalent. Over the past week, the ratio of the rolling seven-day total of searches for dine-out options to the equivalent number of searches for dine-in options has increased by more than tenfold. The shift started when people were first encouraged to avoid crowds, and accelerated when restaurants in some jurisdictions were ordered to shut their doors and offer only takeout and delivery options.

If you’d like additional detail on how the economy is shifting, please contact press@yelp.com.

Downloadable static graphics can be found here.

Graphics by The DataFace.

See the latest report at YelpEconomicAverage.com. Previous report: March 20.

Methodology

Business Category Changes

To pinpoint how the coronavirus is affecting the economy, we looked at which types of businesses (categories) have risen or fallen in interest relative to others in the same general line of business (root categories). So, for instance, we compare French restaurants, dim sum places, and pizzerias to each other, in terms of their share of all interest for restaurants.

Our measure of interest is consumer interest, measured in terms of daily U.S. counts of a selected set of the many actions people take to connect with businesses on Yelp, such as viewing their business page or posting reviews.

We started with the 500 biggest U.S. categories by consumer actions. Among those, we selected the 50 biggest gainers and 50 biggest decliners in terms of their share of all root category consumer actions from the prior week. Then we chose representative ones to show the trend, which we’re charting from March 1 through March 22.

Map

Which states are most closely reflecting the coronavirus economy at the national level? To check, we looked at the cumulative change in consumer-action share by state for the categories that had the biggest national rises and declines. The more these indicators of the coronavirus effect moved within each state since March 10, which is when major local economic shifts began, the more that state’s economy transformed in response to the coronavirus. We’re mapping the economic impact alongside the scope of the outbreak, with the measures updated through Sunday, March 22, and Monday, March 23, respectively.

Dine In vs. Dine Out

Consumers often indicate their intent when searching for restaurants by choosing filters for places that offer Yelp Reservations and Waitlist for dining in, or delivery and takeout for dining out. We’ve been tracking this measure nationally every day to see how restaurant meals are moving into the home, and chart its progression from March 1 through March 19. The data is calculated on a rolling seven-day basis, and compared to the level on March 8.