Lots of consumers skip breakfast. Those who do take time to eat, increasingly do so on the run. Eleven percent of morning meals are eaten outside the home, and 6% are eaten on the go, double the rate of a decade ago, according to a recent story in The Washington Post.
The breakfast daypart is fueling growth for restaurants as well. The National Restaurant Association reported that 40% of its members had seen better growth during breakfast than during lunch or dinner at their restaurants this year.
Nevertheless, with so many Americans frequently skipping the meal or just grabbing something at home or at work, competition for those dollars is fierce, according to Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago-based food-service consulting firm.
"People are eating out more for breakfast, but it's at venues that are very, very convenient and very value-oriented," he said. "Customers don't want to spend a lot on breakfast for those types of occasions."
These factors have given rise to a host of new handheld breakfast items at quick-service restaurants, as well as the development of new breakfast sandwich programs at major chains such as Starbucks and Subway. For the most part, these companies have been successful with these products, but expectations for breakfast programs are often fairly modest.
"They're trying to get incremental business," Goldin said. "You're paying rent 24 hours a day anyway, and incrementally, it should be a profitable daypart because breakfast food costs are relatively low."
Lacking the convenience of a QSR drive-through, Goldin said that supermarkets interested in picking up breakfast business might consider offering an all-day breakfast menu for late-morning customers, or developing a program that utilizes any available in-store seating.
"There may be more of an opportunity [during breakfast] for supermarkets with in-store seating," Goldin said. "Customers will linger, and that's a different dynamic."
