MRM Research Roundup: End-of-January 2020 Super Bowl Edition

This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features an economic report from Yelp, super Super Bowl stats, delivery trends, megatrends, best cities for BBQ and top venues.YelponomicsYelp released its first-ever annual Yelp Economic Average​ (YEA) report, a benchmark of local economic strength in the U.S. The report found that most local economies nationwide slumped in 2019, down 1.3 percent from the previous year, led by underperformance in restaurant, food and nightlight categories, as well as brick-and-mortar shops. A weak fourth quarter, down 1.4 percent, largely contributed to the 2019 drop and marked the largest quarter-over-quarter decline since 2018. The report also found that businesses in states that voted Republican in the 2016 presidential election outpaced the economic growth of businesses in states that voted Democratic.

YEA is ​calculated​ starting from the fourth quarter of 2016 nationally, as well as in 50 metros and…