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Will Big Macs boost McD’s results as popularity of all-day breakfast wanes?

January 25, 2017Written by George Anderson

Source: McDonald's

McDonald’s decision to serve breakfast all day long helped boost the fast-food chain’s sales for a short time. Recent sales evidence, however, suggests the allure of being able to get a McMuffin or McGriddles sandwich anytime they want may be waning. So, what does McDonald’s plan to do next to move its business in the right direction? Offer more Big Mac choices, of course. The chain is offering two additional sizes of its popular burger for a limited time. These include the Mac Jr., a single-patty version of the Big Mac, and the Grand Mac, which has a bigger patty than the flagship sandwich as well as an extra slice of cheese. To celebrate the Big Mac, McDonald’s is also giving away 10,000 limited edition bottles of its Special Sauce at participating restaurants across the U.S. beginning tomorrow. McDonald’s promotion of its Big Mac appears to be yet another attempt for the chain to connect with Millennials. According to an internal memo, reported on by MarketWatch, only one in five Millennials has eaten a Big Mac. The chain tested a Sriracha Big Mac in 126 restaurants in Ohio in the fourth quarter to determine if it would roll out the item nationwide this year. McDonald’s same-store sales in the fourth quarter declined 1.3 percent in the U.S. The chain said the drop was due to an unfavorable comparison to sales from a year earlier when it launched its all-day breakfast menu. In November, the chain announced plans to roll out table service to all of its 14,000 locations in the U.S. With the new set-up, customers use a touch-screen to place their orders and pick up a location device for servers to deliver food to their tables. McDonald’s believes the new system will improve the customer experience by cutting down on wait times at the counter. On the company’s earnings call earlier this week, CEO Steve Easterbrook, said McDonald’s was in the “very, very early stages” of a small pilot program in Florida to determine if home delivery makes sense for the chain.

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