What It Solves
Turns public restaurant sales data into a forecast
This platform will help visitors see whether national restaurant sales are likely to rise, flatten, or soften over the next year.
Restaurant Sales Intelligence Platform
Restaurant Sales Intelligence
Forecasting U.S. food-service sales from public economic dataPrediction
Monthly sales outlook
The first model will forecast U.S. food-service sales for the next 12 months, then compare predictions against later actuals.
Data
Census and labor indicators
Planned inputs include Census restaurant sales, inflation, unemployment, wages, and restaurant employment.
Status
Dashboard shell is ready
The user experience and prototype charts are in place. The public data collector and first model come next.
Platform Snapshot
What visitors will be able to inspect
ProblemRestaurant sales direction
Prediction12-month sales forecast
ModelSeasonal baseline first
StatusIn development
Next Month Forecast
--B
Loading prototype forecast
12 Month Outlook
--%
Forecasted growth across the prototype horizon
Target Cadence
Monthly
Census and BLS source data update monthly
Model Stage
Base
Ready for seasonal baseline and driver features
Sales forecast
Actuals and 12 month projection
Forecast Notes
Current prototype assumptions
TargetMonthly sales
ScopeNational
Horizon12 months
UnitBillions USD
Model Performance
How the first sales model will be evaluated
First modelSeasonal baseline
TargetSales
FeaturesLags + calendar
ValidationBacktest
Drivers
Economic feature candidates
Validation Plan
How accuracy will be shown
BacktestingTrain on past months, test on later months
Main error metricMonthly forecast error
ComparisonModel vs seasonal baseline
Dashboard displayActuals vs forecast over time
Data Pipeline
Planned public datasets
Census MRTS
Restaurant sales
BLS CPI
Food away from home
BLS labor
Employment and wages
FRED optional
Gas, rates, sentiment
S3 Layout
Future operational path
raw/restaurants/ census_mrts/ bls_indicators/ processed/restaurants/ monthly_features/ dashboard/restaurants/data/ latest_restaurant_sales_forecast.json
Build Status
Restaurant module setup
1
Portal route
Restaurant dashboard is available from the shared navigation
2
Data collector
Monthly public API pulls will be added after the dashboard shell
3
Training set
Cleaned monthly features will be published for local modeling
4
Dashboard output
Forecast JSON will replace the current prototype data file
Roadmap
Where the Restaurant Sales Intelligence Platform goes next
1
Dashboard shell
Portal route, navigation, layout, charts, and prototype data are in place
2
Public data import
Census monthly sales and BLS indicators land in S3
3
Baseline forecast
Seasonality and lag features produce the first monthly forecast
4
Portal JSON
Model output replaces the current prototype data file
Future Dashboard Ideas
Restaurant intelligence modules to add later
Sales forecastsFirst priority
Inventory pressureFuture
Staffing demandFuture
Regional comparisonFuture