NAICS 722512Canadian industry · 6-digitlocal market

Limited-service eating places

This Canadian industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing food services to patrons who order or select items at a counter, food bar or cafeteria line (or order by telephone) and pay before eating. Food and drink are picked up for consumption on the premises or for take-out, or delivered to the customer's location. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 32,138
Under 10 employeesA: 46%

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–46,47020%

5–98,30526%

10–197,91325%

20–497,36123%

50–991,6165%

100–1994191%

200–499500%

500+40%

Of 32,138 Canadian establishments with employees, 46% have fewer than ten — weighted toward mid-sized establishments.

Where they areA

Ontario13,09141%

Quebec6,53220%

British Columbia4,47114%

Alberta3,89812%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Accommodation and Food Services, US · opened 2020

85.5%

1 year

72.1%

3 years

59.3%

5 years

41.6%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

No US figure is shown. County Business Patterns is coded to the 2017 US edition of NAICS; this code either does not exist there, names a different industry, or is outside the programme's coverage (most of agriculture, rail, postal and public administration are). A figure is attached only where both the code and the title agree.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 722, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 722 Food services and drinking places

Easy to open and hard to keep open: food, labour and rent leave single-digit margins, delivery platforms take a further cut, and failure rates are high. Franchises trade margin for a tested format.

Who sets the price: The operator, against every other meal within reach.
The software it runs on: Restaurant point of sale, online ordering, delivery integration, scheduling and inventory — sold with payments attached.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 72251 Full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 722511

Independent Restaurant OperationStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

A fit-out runs several hundred thousand dollars before a single cover, net margins in the single digits leave no room for a slow first year, and the delivery platforms take a cut large enough to invert the economics of the orders they bring. Included in this research deliberately: it is the most-considered entry in this list and the one where the arithmetic is least forgiving. The software sold to these operators is studied separately at the same code.

NAICS 7225115 vendors named7 sourced figuresOpen →

Vertical softwareFull studyfiled at 722511

Restaurant Operations SoftwareEnter — narrow

Incumbent Toast (NYSE: TOST)

Toast is a payments company that sells a POS. It monetises the top line and has no structural reason to tell an operator where food cost is bleeding — which is where a 3–5% net margin actually goes.

NAICS 7225114 vendors named6 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Restaurant point of sale, online ordering, delivery integration, scheduling and inventory — sold with payments attached.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Accommodation and food services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Managers in food service and accommodation One industry 87.6%

Occupations in food and beverage service One industry 84.1%

Food support occupations One industry 75.3%

Specialized occupations in services Mostly one sector 68.6%

Cooks, butchers and bakers Mostly one sector 60.2%

Service supervisors Mostly one sector 49.3%

Tourism and amusement services occupations Mostly one sector 10.2%

Cashiers and other sales support occupations One industry 8.6%

Support occupations in accommodation, travel, tourism and amusement services Mostly one sector 7.3%

Taxi, personal service and delivery service drivers Mostly one sector 5.2%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 4.3%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 1.7%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 1.5%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 1.4%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 1.3%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 1.2%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 1.2%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 1.2%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Alongside this industry

This is the most specific level NAICS defines. The other industries under 72251 are its nearest neighbours.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
722511	Full-service restaurants	34,175	Independent Restaurant Operation Restaurant Operations Software