All's fair in love and retail. With a growing list of restaurants, including Burger King, McDonald's, Panera Bread, Taco Bell, Subway and Wendy's, looking to grab share of the out-of-home breakfast market, who could blame Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks for going after the lunchtime opportunity.
With the vast majority of their sales in the morning hours, both Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks have made menu and décor changes to attract patrons during other day-parts.
"The biggest challenge is generating awareness," said John Costello, global marketing and innovation president at Dunkin' Brands, via Bloomberg News. "Our mission is to get people running in the morning and to keep them running all day."
Dunkin' Donuts debuted a new $3.99 grilled chicken flatbread sandwich this week.
Starbucks, which saw comp sales grow six percent in its last quarter, sees food as a means to grow its revenues and profits. Speaking on the company's earnings conference call in April, COO Troy Alstead said food represented two percent of the chain's comp growth.
During the same call, Mr. Alstead said, "We have significantly advanced our lunch program of bistro boxes, paninis and salads over the past few years, but there is a much larger price here and we're ready to go after it. We began testing different lunch options and are narrowing our focus to the best performance based on the results thus far."
Last month, Starbucks added a number of lunch sandwiches to its menu at cafes in the Phoenix and Richmond, VA markets including a beef brisket and cheddar baguette for $6.95, grilled chicken with bacon and Swiss for $5.99 and grilled cheese for $5.25. The company plans to introduce new sandwiches for the lunchtime crowd across the U.S. later this year.