Sales at Cosi restaurants were less than miraculous last month, and the company thinks the Holy Father is to blame.
The fast casual chain reported Wednesday that comparable-restaurant sales at company-owned locations were down 4.5% for the four weeks ended on Sept. 28 as compared to the same period last year, and 0.3% for the third quarter as a whole.
The company pinned part of the downturn on Pope Francis' visit to the United States, which took a 0.9% sales toll on its Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and New York locations for the four-week period, according to Cosi's estimates.
"Business interruptions resulting from the Pope’s visit on September 22–26, 2015 negatively impacted 30% of our Company-owned restaurants," the company said in a news release.
The chain operates 79 company-owned restaurants and 30 franchise stores in 15 states as well as Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates.
But by less-than-divine luck, a disproportionate chunk of them happen to be clustered around the pope's travel destinations.
The "year over year shift of the Labor Day holiday" and closures of two California franchise stores were also cited as sales killers.
Unfortunately for Cosi, acts of God aren't usually considered a reasonable excuse in the business world. Company shares were down about 17% for the day on Wednesday afternoon.