McGriddles
Photo – McDonald’s

Yes! McD’s McGriddles all-day, every day

My wife is not so sure the news that McDonald’s is adding its McGriddles sandwich to its all-day breakfast menu is such a good thing. You see, I’m not a big Mickey D’s guy, but the two or three times I stop by the local drive-through every year are for … you guessed it. One of the balances against my cravings for the maple-flavored pancake sandwiches has always been the fast food chain’s restriction on when they could be purchased. Beginning in September, all bets are off.

The move by McDonald’s to expand its all-day breakfast menu is intended to build on the sales momentum the chain has gained since making the change last year. The company posted a comparable sales gain of 5.4 percent in the latest quarter, in part due to the success of its all-day breakfast offerings. It will report its most recent quarterly results on July 26.

While all-day breakfast has helped boost sales at many McDonald’s, franchisees initially pushed back over concerns about the impact that more complicated kitchen operations would have on service levels. Some also believed that all-day breakfast would simply encourage existing patrons to trade-down from more profitable regular menu items and do little to bring in new customers.

BrainTrust

"This new move is a good one, not because of more items on the menu. It’s good because more items draws more attention to the all-day breakfast. "

Shep Hyken

Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC


"Either focus on becoming a breakfast-centric chain or develop an entree program that features edible food."

Ryan Mathews

Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting


"This move should help McDonald’s win back their customers that have moved on to other chains..."

Zel Bianco

President, founder and CEO Interactive Edge


Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Will the addition of new breakfast items to its all-day menu have a significant affect on McDonald’s business going forward? Do see all-day breakfast as a long-term fix for the challenges McDonald’s faces in acquiring and keeping customers, or will more changes be needed?

Poll

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Shep Hyken
Active Member
7 years ago

McDonald’s got a boost when they expanded their breakfast from mornings to all-day. It worked and was a good strategic move. Their customers love the all-day breakfast.

This new move is a good one, not because of more items on the menu. It’s good because more items draws more attention to the all-day breakfast. This is more a PR and marketing play than anything else. They are creating more awareness. That will bring in more all-day breakfast customers. Brilliant move by McD’s!

Steve Montgomery
Steve Montgomery
Member
7 years ago

One conventional wisdom in the QSR world is, “own the morning own the day.” The original thought was if you could get customers in for breakfast then you had a good chance of getting them back for lunch or dinner. With the expansion of McDonald’s breakfast menu into all parts of the day the thought appears to be that the way to own the day is to offer breakfast throughout the day.

The article notes that McDonald’s sales are up so it appears to be working. Offering breakfast anytime does help McDonald’s avoid the “no” vote when a group is considering where to go. There are many people who will buy one of their breakfast sandwiches but not eat a Big Mac.

We heard a lot about the franchisees complaining about the impact on their operations and potentially about their profits as customers might trade down. I wonder if this is still an issue given the 6.2 percent sales increase in the first quarter.

Patricia Vekich Waldron
Active Member
7 years ago

Making these new (and popular) menu items available throughout the day is a smart move! It will draw guests who normally would not consider McDonald’s during the lunch and evening day parts.

Ryan Mathews
Trusted Member
7 years ago

Smart animals adapt.

It’s no secret that for years McDonald’s has wrestled with a day part problem, i.e., they sold a lot of breakfasts and, after breakfast, they sold a lot of Happy Meals.

Why? Well, the cynic in me says it’s because their entrees taste like cardboard, but that’s a different discussion for a different day, although maybe it isn’t.

The secret in foodservice — whether white tablecloth or QSR — is to first serve food that tastes good. Obviously, McDonald’s patrons prefer the taste of breakfast over the chain’s more traditional dinner entrees, hence the popularity of the new program and the overall boost in sales.

You don’t have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to figure out what they should do next — either focus on becoming a breakfast-centric chain or develop an entree program that features edible food.

Zel Bianco
Zel Bianco
Active Member
7 years ago

Adding additional breakfast items to the menu definitely seems to be a good idea. This move should help McDonald’s win back their customers that have moved on to other chains such as Five Guys and Wendy’s. It also helps to set them apart from their competitors who don’t offer breakfast all day. McDonald’s has been around for a long time and their customers are constantly changing and evolving. In the future they need to be quicker to react to these changes. The steps they are taking are all positive. Going forward, they also need to tackle and take steps to remedy the bad PR they are getting for employee wages.

Matthew Stern
7 years ago

While I’ve never had a McGriddle (they sort of scare me), I remember when the product was first released, or at least when it became more widely available, it was a story unto itself. It had a funny name, a funny concept and an absolute throwing of caution to the wind on calorie count, which got the hivemind buzzing. Because of that, I think virality plays a role in getting people in the door for something like the McGriddle at any time of the day. In fact, when you think about it, in earlier eras McDonald’s had successes with menu items that had a proto-viral appeal. Both the McRib and the Shamrock Shake developed cult following due as much to being curios for people to talk about as their scarcity and taste (the McRib even managing to get parodied on The Simpsons).

So if the McGriddle succeeds as an all-day-breakfast menu item, it might be worth considering that McDonald’s is doing, perhaps somewhat unknowingly, what Burger King has been doing quite intentionally; getting surprising, viral products (hot dogs, those macaroni-filled Cheetos cheese stick things) on the menu with their appearance doubling as a media event. Perhaps the next step should be another breakfast item that boosts buzz similarly — an Egg McMuffin/hamburger hybrid, or something pulled from the memetic “secret menu,” maybe?

Lesley Everett
Lesley Everett
7 years ago

It’s about giving customers choice … but not just this. It’s an opportunity for McDonald’s to attract a new customer and provide an experience that they might just like, therefore going back for more and other choices too. However they need to ensure that the experience is good so it gets talked about. So all-in-all I think it’s a good thing but they’ve got to work on providing an experience good enough for new customers to say “hey, I’ve not eaten McDonald’s for some time but that all-day breakfast experience was surprisingly good!”

Kim Garretson
Kim Garretson
7 years ago

One advantage for McDonald’s, at least in the short term, is that the cost of eggs has fallen to a five-year low and is below the cost of production. This happened in response to the bird flu scare last year and producers over-compensating in boosting production. With these low food costs for a key item on the breakfast menu, I would expect McDonald’s margins to be healthy on these products for some time.

Camille P. Schuster, PhD.
Member
7 years ago

Obviously offering breakfast all day has increased sales. Given people’s flexible working patterns and tendency to not pigeonhole certain food for certain meals, this is a good move for customers. It may create headaches in the kitchen but once the adaptations are made the change can continue long-term. What this means for the future? McDonald’s needs to make sure that consumers still want to eat the rest of the food offered. If they do and the kitchen has been able to adapt, then maybe all food needs to be offered all the time because customers do have flexible schedules and do not pigeonhole specific foods for certain day parts.

Christopher P. Ramey
Member
7 years ago

It’s not that it’s “breakfast.” It’s that eggs, English muffins, cheese and ham or sausage aren’t dumbed-down to the point that customers don’t trust what they’re eating.

Customers aren’t always buying what you think you’re selling.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
Noble Member
7 years ago

As George — and others, me included — have discovered, the “all day breakfast” came with a qualification that wasn’t as widely promoted. Only a portion of the menu is actually all day. This seems like a measured way to increase the benefits of that experiment while still addressing the concern of operators about its impact on the lunch menu … which is, after all, (still) the heart of the business.

Is it a fix-all? No: McD’s still has the problem that its menu is increasingly seen as unhealthy and outdated.

Kai Clarke
Kai Clarke
Active Member
7 years ago

Yes, adding more breakfast items to the all day menu can only help McD’s. Better yet, adding more key foods to the all day menu (like burgers at breakfast) will also benefit McD’s. Customers want different things all day … give it to them.

Naomi K. Shapiro
Naomi K. Shapiro
7 years ago

I think it’s a sign of strength when you make a positive move as McDonald’s has done with having an all-day breakfast menu. It may bring in more business that wouldn’t otherwise take place in those p.m. hours. I understand the franchisees’ concern about more complicated preparations, but let’s hope that the added business and impulse buying of all the other McDonald’s offerings will offset any inconvenience incurred with the new offerings.