I've thought the same thing, I think it's a national stat and there is a lot of stuff opening in markets that make no sense for a restaurant in the first place.

I've thought the same thing, I think it's a national stat and there is a lot of stuff opening in markets that make no sense for a restaurant in the first place. It's invisible to me, maybe you, because we live in and frequent urban/suburban places of middle+ class economics where seemingly most restaurants succeed. The rural and <middle class areas is where a lot of the failure comes from. That's my hypothesis anyway.