BY ADAM DAIGLE | Acadiana business editor It's one of the big data files we always look forward to here: the year total sales numbers in the Lafayette Parish from the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. Today I am digging into restaurant sales and overall food sales. Inflation in recent years (and lack of any data measuring, say, how many shrimp po-boys were sold) makes any hard comparisons a bit squishy, but what I can tell is restaurant sales took up more of the overall food sales last year. Restaurants took up 41.3% of all food sales. That percentage has hovered in the mid- to upper 30s since 2014, even when everyone had money on their pockets around Lafayette in 2014. Why did that happen? My sources have ideas. You can check my story here. Have a good day and thanks for reading. | 