Is All-Day Breakfast The Key To McDonald’s Turnaround?

McDonald’s has been around the block enough times to know a thing or two about what its customers do and do not like. However, even the oldest veterans of the retail market can learn a few new lessons like McDonald’s is with its all-day breakfast menu experiment.

MarketWatch reported on the ongoing success in nearly all McDonald’s markets of the decision to offer its breakfast menu all day instead of the usual 10:30 a.m. stoppage time. Allen Salkin, culture and food journalist, told MarketWatch that the switch hit a nerve with the changing lifestyles of many of McDonald’s on-the-go customers and both sides are reaping the benefits of changed expectations.

“Most people used to live when people couldn’t do their Christmas shopping at 3 a.m.,” Salkin said. “That’s not the case anymore, so why should McDonald’s live by those rules?”

While all-day breakfast might be a hit with market analysts and McDonald’s corporate, it hasn’t been the same experience for those working in the brand’s frontline stores. An Oct. 2015 report by Business Insider found that store managers were roundly negative on the menu change, citing problems with crowded back-of-the-house spaces and employees stumbling over themselves to prepare items that kitchens weren’t designed to handle at the same time.

Not only that, but some managers complained of being short-shifted due to increased demand around the clock. If labor costs start to increase because of the all-day breakfast menu, it’s unlikely that the move will remain the resounding success it’s currently being hailed as.

For now, though, Sam Oches, editor-in-chief of QSR, told MarketWatch that such success is hard to come by in the breakfast world.

“Breakfast foods are very appealing because there’s a lot of opportunity for innovation,” Oches said. “If you just have scrambled eggs, that’s not going to cut it.”

It seems like McGriddles and McMuffins will, though.