Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

storewanderer wrote: January 2nd, 2023, 6:08 pm How does Burger King cook these breakfast items? Do they have a flat grill to make sausage?

The only breakfast items I've tried from Burger King are the hotcakes and those hash rounds (round tater tots). I wish they'd cook the hash rounds about 45 seconds longer.
I’m not sure on that. I did notice that the broiler was lit with flames during breakfast and there was smoke coming out. So something is cooking on it at that time.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

I wonder how much traffic Subway gets at breakfast on a given day? There’s one in the shopping center adjacent to the Burger King I go to for breakfast on Saturdays.

I’ve noticed sometimes I see seemingly nobody there, in other ocassions there seems to be a group of 3-4 Corvettes parked there.

My guess is Subway gets very little breakfast sales, but only needs to have one or two employees on staff at the time, so can manage okay with slow sales. Perhaps earlier on the day they are busier (I’ve usually been around between 9 and 10:30 so the early traffic would be long gone, but then with Saturdays you might expect it to be busier later than earlier).

I still think that for whatever reason, McDonald’s reigns supreme over all other fast food establishments for breakfast sales, and they seem to have heavy traffic all the way up to the 10:30 cutoff time at the ones I’ve seen.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: January 28th, 2023, 4:34 am I wonder how much traffic Subway gets at breakfast on a given day? There’s one in the shopping center adjacent to the Burger King I go to for breakfast on Saturdays.

I’ve noticed sometimes I see seemingly nobody there, in other ocassions there seems to be a group of 3-4 Corvettes parked there.

My guess is Subway gets very little breakfast sales, but only needs to have one or two employees on staff at the time, so can manage okay with slow sales. Perhaps earlier on the day they are busier (I’ve usually been around between 9 and 10:30 so the early traffic would be long gone, but then with Saturdays you might expect it to be busier later than earlier).

I still think that for whatever reason, McDonald’s reigns supreme over all other fast food establishments for breakfast sales, and they seem to have heavy traffic all the way up to the 10:30 cutoff time at the ones I’ve seen.
Varies by area. Near me the McDonald's are still drive through only at breakfast many days and breakfast traffic has dropped off to almost nothing at those locations. Some other places I go where the McDonalds are open reliably and consistently the old breakfast customer base never left and is still there in force.

Do all Subway units even do breakfast? I never see anyone at Subway during breakfast unless it is at a truck stop and in that case people are just buying normal sandwiches. At the strip mall Subways, I assume the employees are there doing the preparation of food for lunch so to stop for a couple minutes to help a customer isn't a huge deal.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

I did notice recently that at least my Taco Bell here offers breakfast until 11 AM. Industry norm seems to be 10:30.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by Romr123 »

Suspect that since the wrappings (tortillas) for breakfast aren't unique and don't take up any appreciable space (versus buns/biscuits) nor are the sauces/potatoes/cheese, the only fillings (eggs/bacon/sausage) are the only things which need to be taken off the line at the end of breakfast.

Also wouldn't put it past the operators to figure out if they're opening at 8 for breakfast, and the hold-time for the eggs/bacon/sausage is 3 hours then pulling it at 10:30 is a waste.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

That could be. I never go past Taco Bell at that time of day, but they’re just not somewhere that I picture getting much traffic at that time.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

I tried Wendy’s for breakfast over the weekend. I got there about 9:30. At first I wasn’t sure the dining room was open. Turns out it was, but no customers inside. Had to wait at counter before anyone noticed me.

Had the honey butter chicken biscuit and potato wedges. It was quite good.

Nobody else came in the entire time I was there, I counted 3, maybe 4 cars coming through the drive thru.

After I left I noticed McDonald’s was as usual busy, quite a line in both drive thru lanes.

I did also glance at Taco Bell as I went past. Two cars in the entire lot and nobody in drive thru.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by storewanderer »

Wendy's breakfast is very solid. It is levels above other fast food breakfasts in quality. I think they are committed to the program despite not much traffic. If they stick with it, over time, they will build up more traffic. It may take them 10 years, but they will get there if they stick with it.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by cjd »

I wanted to try Taco Bell for breakfast. I get there with one car in lot and one in drive thru. I don’t know what happened but it looked like the car at the speaker came around and parked. I tried the door and it was locked.

This was around 10:15, sign on door showed open at 10 AM inside 8 AM drive thru, Google show 8AM.
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Re: Breakfast Traffic Plunges In November

Post by Brian Lutz »

I have generally found Taco Bell's breakfast burritos to be pretty solid, nothing too fancy but pretty good. Near here there's a McDonald's, a Taco Bell, a Wendy's and a Maverik with Bonfire Grill all within the same block, so there's plenty of decent breakfast options there. That said, I suspect at least 75% of the breakfast traffic on that block goes to McDonald's.
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