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McDonald's may do breakfast till noon, since millennials can't make it by 10:30

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by LongTimeListener, Feb 24, 2014.

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Page 6 of 16
  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    What is "perfectly easy," likely has no place in McDonald's thinking. It needs to shake things up. What it already does hasn't been working that well lately.

    The company didn't have a very good 2013. Sales and earnings missed expectations -- even as the company guided downward -- and they didn't grow either that much. Now Taco Bell has entered the breakfast market, which apparently is a fairly big threat.

    I am sure from where Don Thompson sits, it isn't a myopic thought process of "Gee, this will require us to change the way we do things, and that can't be worth the trouble.

    Of course it is worth the trouble. The company isn't growing sales and earnings, and it has been losing market share to its U.S. rivals. He needs to rethink what they are doing.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 25, 2014
    #61
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm really, really certain that the millenials I hang out with are not being supported by their parents.
     
    Dick Whitman, Feb 25, 2014
    #62
  3. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Read recently that the coffee drinks (as well as other new menu items) are slowing drive-thru service down so much, McD's is going to reconfigure thousands of stores to create a 3rd drive-thru window. Yikes.
     
    TigerVols, Feb 25, 2014
    #63
  4. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Coincidentally, as I was walking out the door this morning my daughter showed me a picture of some new breakfast-taco thingie from Taco Bell using a waffle as the taco shell.

    Ah, yes, here it is:

    [​IMG]

    She didn't think it looked terribly appetizing, but she is far from typical, so take that for what it's worth.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
    da man, Feb 25, 2014
    #64
  5. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member


    Something needs to be done. I propose something. Therefore, I have proven that what I propose needs to be done.


    The fact that McDonald's is struggling doesn't prove that they should be serving breakfast whenever. No more than newspapers circling the drain proves we should have run more travel ball centerpieces.
     
    RickStain, Feb 25, 2014
    #65
  6. mjp1542

    mjp1542 Member

    Very rare, but I'll take the kiddos for a once-a-month McD's run. Over the past few months, the drive thru lines have been brutal. So slow. I did see a McD's the other day that has gone with the Chick-fil-A model of two lanes that merge near the pay window. I'm not sure how that speeds things up, but it works for C-f-A.
     
    mjp1542, Feb 25, 2014
    #66
  7. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Usually there's around three car lengths between the menu speaker and the money window, which may or may not be in use, and around two lengths between the money and food window. If there's any sort of line, you'll end up with people stuck next to the menu speaker even after they've made their order, thus guaranteeing that an already long line is going to get longer. At least with the two speaker split, the hangup isn't going to be people waiting to get to the speaker.
     
    Mystery Meat II, Feb 25, 2014
    #67
  8. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    The McDonald's in Hannibal, Mo. has the fastest drive-thru I've ever seen. I'd get supper there on some football Fridays, and they'd have this great set-up.

    First, it was a double-speaker drive-through.

    Then, someone would be standing outside to take your money or credit card before you got to the first window. You'd get your change or your card back when you got to the first window. Then, instead of pulling up to the second window, they had a little semi-circle marked out in cones, and cars would park around it. Two workers would be standing inside the semi-circle bringing orders from the window to cars.
     
    RickStain, Feb 25, 2014
    #68
  9. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    You posted earlier that logistically having breakfast run into lunch was difficult. And then jumped in your post to it not being worth their while.

    The logistics are the reason that McDonald's has not done it yet.

    But it has been losing market share to its rivals, and earnings have suffered. That is exactly why it might be worth their while -- and apparently why they are seriously looking at it.

    Their research has identified a potential missed opportunity. Unless you are suggesting what you didn't -- that 20 and 30 year olds (a market McDonald's covets) would not respond well to a breakfast menu that runs farther into the day, not simply that it logistically it would require changing things and that is difficult (what you did suggest) -- they are looking at that potential lost market as a way to deal with increased competition and flagging sales.

    For them, the question was should they sit tight and keep losing market share, sales and earnings to competitors, or could adapting to people's changed eating habits in a way their competitors aren't, and doing it in a way that doesn't affect their core business, help give them a competitive advantage that would take back some of the market?

    That isn't the same as a newspaper printing comprehensive JV boxscores to a non-existent audience.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 25, 2014
    #69
  10. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    Well, that's on you for expecting me to remember what the thread was actually about and not the fast-food tangents.
     
    RickStain, Feb 25, 2014
    #70
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Has anyone here tried the Taco Bell Waffle Taco? Holy shit will that look great clogging up my arteries. :D
     
    Mizzougrad96, Feb 25, 2014
    #71
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I saw picture of it this morning (actually on this thread too). I know I am not in the mainstream on these things -- so I am sure it will be a huge success -- but it looks revolting. I think I saw something about Seth Myers making a joke in his monologue last night about it being the perfect food for when you wake up drunk.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 25, 2014
    #72
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