More Americans are grabbing breakfast to go, and
restaurants are scrambling to serve them.
This month, Panera Bread Co. added new egg
wraps, baked goods and coffee drinks. Right now, 80
percent of Panera’s business comes after 11 a.m. It
wants that to change.
Burger King launched a $5
monthly coffee subscription,
good for one cup each day.
McDonald’s recently
introduced its first new
breakfast items in five years.
Morning restaurant visits
rose an average of 2 percent
annually over the past eight
years, says The NPD Group, a
market research firm. That’s
faster than lunch visits, which flattened as more
people snack or work from home. Morning meals
accounted for 22 percent of restaurant traffic last year.
The lift isn’t helping everyone. U.S. sales at some
sit-down breakfast mainstays, like Bob Evans, fell last
year. That’s because consumers
want quick options, says David
Portalatin, a vice president at
NPD.
Breakfast also appeals to
fast-food chains because there’s
less competition — restaurants
like Chipotle and Domino’s don’t
participate, for example — and
coffee has high margins, says
Robert Byrne, a senior manager of
consumer insights at Technomic