Is breakfast poised for a comeback?
Breakfast business took a beating during the pandemic. Traffic, during what was usually a busy daypart for c-stores, waned, as commuters shifted to working at home and no longer stopped in for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee on the way to work and school.
But there are signals that breakfast is making a comeback. The key to capturing a piece of the action is understanding consumers's shifting breakfast priorities.
Convenient drive-thrus, mobile payment and order-ahead options are increasingly critical for attracting breakfast patrons, according to Technomic.
The research company asked Canadian consumers: "Thinking about the place you purchase breakfast from most often during the week/on the weekend, what are the main reasons you do so?"
On weekends, consumers most prioritize a convenient location when grabbing breakfast. During the week, convenience takes on more facets, such as the convenience of the drive-thru, the speed of its service and positioning on the route to work/school.
Signs there's a renewed interest in the breakfast daypart? Two years after debuting its breakfast offerings in the U.S., Wendy’s breakfast will be available across Canada this spring.
The U.S. menu features morning twists on Wendy’s classics, such as the Breakfast Baconator. In addition to more traditional breakfast sandwiches, U.S. locations recently introduced the Hot Honey Chicken Biscuit. In a recent earnings report, the breakfast daypart accounted for nearly 8% of the burger chain’s total sales in the U.S. Wendy's now has more than 400 locations in Canada.
The daypart is ripe for the taking.