Quick service chain McDonald’s has suspended its popular all-day breakfast during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To simplify operations in our kitchens and for our crew, and ensure the best possible experience for our customers, we are working with our franchisees and local restaurants to focus on serving our most popular choices and will begin temporarily removing some items from the menu over the next few weeks,” Bill Garrett, the senior vice president of McDonald’s U.S. operations, said in a statement.
McDonald’s closed nearly all U.S. dining rooms earlier this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers can still purchase menu items via drive-thru, takeout or delivery. The brand also shuttered all UK locations until at least April 5. UK farmers that normally supply McDonald’s have already made plans to redirect food to other parts of the food chain.
The menu change is only temporary. Shortly after the announcement, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger tweeted, "All day breakfast’s response to this news: 'I’ll be back.'"
McDonald’s added two new chicken sandwiches, the McChicken Biscuit and the Chicken McGriddles Sandwich, to their breakfast menu in February, shortly after the brand’s CEO called breakfast a “priority” for the brand. “It starts with breakfast. Breakfast is the only daypart in the industry that’s seeing traffic growth. We have to win at breakfast,” he said.
The McChicken Biscuit is made with a crispy chicken fillet and a biscuit, while the Chicken McGriddles features the chicken fillet between two maple griddle cakes.
Dramatic shift away from breakfast
Before COVID-19, breakfast accounted for 25% of McDonald’s sales. However, research showed a “dramatic shift away from quick service restaurant breakfast” during the month of March as many have adopted social distancing or self-quarantine measures due to COVID-19, according to traffic data from market research firm Sense360.
“Within the breakfast daypart, we saw a move away from the commuter breakfast occasion. This is as a result of fewer people on the road each morning commuting from home to work,” Sense360 said in its latest report, which is based on foot traffic and survey data from millions of consumers.
View our continuing coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
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