4 things you need to know about McDonald’s all day breakfast
The new CEO of McDonald’s is making big changes to try to boost the chain’s stagnant sales. His boldest move yet starts Tuesday: all-day breakfast. It’s harder than it sounds.
McDonald’s started testing all-day breakfast in a few places in March. To go nationwide, more than 14,300 restaurants in the U.S. needed to install separate griddles and train staff on how to handle breakfast orders simultaneously with lunch and dinner.
Here are five things you need to know about it:
Not all breakfast items will be offered all day
The roll out is further complicated by the fact that franchisees have been urging the company to cull the number of items they serve. The operators say the bloated menu makes it hard to run the restaurants and leads to longer wait times.
Still, McDonald’s insists that franchisees supported the decision to serve pancakes and egg sandwiches all day long.
All day menu options can vary by location, although most will offer hot cakes, fruit and yogurt parfait, oatmeal, sausage burrito and hashbrowns.
Hashbrowns will vary location-by-location, so some Las Vegas outlets might not offer them at all while others will.
The South isn’t getting McMuffins
Instead, regional McDonald’s will offer a biscuit sandwich, while the rest of the country will get the McMuffin. Florida, however, wasn’t selected in the biscuit range, and will get McMuffins.
“Maybe the Mason-Dixon line should be renamed the Biscuit-McMuffin line,” Nation Restaurant News wrote.
This is McDonald’s first major crowd-pleasing move
McDonald’s hopes it can stem the losses by getting new customers into its restaurants, while ensuring that loyal lunch and dinner customers don’t opt for breakfast instead because those items generally cost less.
All-day breakfast is just one piece of CEO Steve Easterbrook plan for McDonald’s. Since he took over in March, the company has taken steps to improve food quality. It now requires chicken suppliers to reduce the use of antibiotics and started using real butter instead of liquid margarine.
But the biggest boost for sales will likely be all-day breakfast. RBC analyst David Palmer believes it will boost sales by 4%.
If you’re ordering from the secret menu, keep an eye on the time
Whether your McDonald’s will actually make your monsterous creation or if you will, there’s only a short period of time you can place those orders — especially with the “Chicken McGriddle,” because the McGriddle isn’t included in the all-day breakfast.
CNN’s Christina Alesci contributed to this report. Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva