CHICAGO — The United States saw 5,551 fewer restaurants in the Fall of 2010 compared to 2009, according to a market researcher.In its continual census of commercial restaurant locations, the NPD Group says that restaurant chains, which include pure company-owned ones like Olive Garden and franchised chains like McDonald's, managed to hold while independents declined by two percent, causing the numbers for all restaurants to drop by one percent.

"These past two years have been particularly tough for independents, which don't have the resources to compete with the chains," says Greg Starzynski, director, product development-foodservice at NPD. "Over the past few years we've lost several thousand independent restaurants."

Quick service restaurants did not fare better than full service restaurants, which includes casual dining, mid-scale and fine dining segments. Both categories dropped by one percent, according to the company's Fall 2010 count of restaurants reported to be open as of September 30, 2010.

Restaurant traffic has been down since January 2009, although visit declines are softening. For year ending November 2010, U.S. restaurant traffic declined by -1 percent compared to a year ago. This is an improvement over the -3 percent declines in visits for year ending November 2009 compared to the prior year.