Monday, June 1, 2009

Playing the Numbers

Reviewing a history of the past few years, marking the openings and closings of restaurants in Wilmington, the city in which I reside and design for.
I was quite surprised by the actual game of numbers

The following numbers were compiled from information provided by "Dine Wilmington Online" the best source for anything and everything food related in Wilmington and growing to cover all of the U.S.

In 2006, 47 new restaurants opened. 10 of which replaced restaurants that had previously closed.
2 of these listed as new were enlarged versions from prior to 2006. and 3 were the opening of a second location. and finally 7 of these 47 new restaurants were built in a brand new and exclusive section of town called Mayfaire. (remember this name).

Also note, 6 of these restaurants were designed by myself.


In 2007, 20 restaurants closed. of these 8 had opened just the year before.
1 was from Mayfaire (brand new building, built from the ground up).
3 were in an area undergoing massive road construction.

Also note, 1 of these was designed by myself, ouch!

Meanwhile during this same period of 2007 28 new restaurants opened.
6 of these restaurants took over the properties vacated by the 20 that just closed.
1 was opening as a new second location. 1 was added to the Mayfaire property.

Also note, 1 was designed by myself.

In 2008, 13 restaurants closed. of these 4 had been open for only 2 years.
5 were from the exclusive Mayfaire Properties.

Also note, 0 of these were designed by myself.

During this same period of 2008, 19 new restaurants had opened to the public.
Of these 4 have since closed, of these 4, one was a Mayfaire property.

Also note, of these 19 new restaurants, 3 were designed by myself.

As the economy took it's downturn in 2009 the information became quite sketchy. But let's take a look at the numbers we have and what they could mean.

2006- 47 open
10 previously closed
Total 37 new restaurants added to the city.
2007 20 close
Total 17 remain of the 2006 entries
28 new were added
Total 45
2008 13 closed
32 remain from the 2006 entries
19 new restaurants open
Total 51
4 closed
Total 47 restaurants remain from the 2006 entries.

There are several hundred restaurants in the Wilmington area, but just running the numbers for the past three years shows absolutely no change in restaurant counts up till 2009. as I research the new numbers, we shall see what is actually happening.

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