North Dakota Leads The Pack -- Strongest Gains In Restaurant Sales; National Restaurant Association's Chief Economist A Native Of Minot, ND -- March 23, 2015

Updates

March 24, 2015: after posting the note below I got an e-mail note from the National Restaurant Association's Chief Economist Bruce Grindy — a native of Minot, North Dakota, with family roots in Lignite, a small town in Bakken oil patch -- in which he said I could add a (c) bullet at the very end of this post (scroll down to end of post to see the original data points);

• and c) has been an occasional reader of The Million Dollar Way over the years.  

I'm glad I didn't put anything "snarky" into the post below. What a nice note to have received from Mr Grindy.

Original Note

 

The Bakken never quits. The link to this article was sent by a reader. The article is awesome but what really caught my attention: the source of the article. Who would have ever thought and "energy story" would end up in a "fast casual" publication. Fast Casual is reporting:

The National Restaurant Associations recent forecast for the states expecting the strongest gains in restaurant sales in 2015, one state stood out from the pack: North Dakota.

The other states listed — Arizona, Florida, Texas, Colorado — are fairly well populated and have strong tourist trade, but as the 48th state in the union in terms of population, North Dakota seems to be an outlier.

But thanks at least in part to its energy sector, it makes sense for North Dakota to be on the radar for restaurant developers.

Over the past decade, North Dakota has experienced an oil boom in the Bakken oil fields in the western part of the state.

According to the National Restaurant Association's Chief Economist Bruce Grindy — a native of Minot, North Dakota, with family roots in Lignite, a small town in Bakken oil patch — North Dakota is poised for restaurant sales growth.

"With so many people moving into the state for the new jobs in the oil industry, North Dakota led the nation in population growth in each of the last three years," Grindy said. "During the last five years, North Dakota’s population jumped 11 percent, or nearly three times the 4-percent population gain registered on the national level."

"It also helps that pretty much anyone in North Dakota who wants a job has one," added Grindy, pointing out North Dakota's low 2.8-percent unemployment rate, "and a lot of the new oil industry jobs are high-paying jobs."

What perfect timing -- the national restaurant association's chief economist a) shares my first name with me and Mr Springsteen; and, b) is a native of Minot.