The coronavirus pandemic caused every single restaurant in the United States to change. Many closed indefinitely (I am still waiting for my favorite Chinese spot to open back up) while others quickly took to curbside pick up, take-out, and delivery to keep the restaurant doors open. Fast food chains like McDonald's shifted to a simpler limited menu, making it easy for a skeleton crew to quickly prepare the food for customers in the drive-thru. Now, months later, Dining rooms are reopening and according to CEO Chris Kempczinski, the slashed Covid-19 menu items are slowly coming back. Well, some of them.
"We will certainly add things back to the menu. Whether it goes all the way back to where we were pre-Covid, I think that's probably unlikely," Kempczinski said Tuesday during a virtual Evercore ISI investor conference.
"But I think that it's equally unlikely that we'll stay with the current menu because the customer is looking for a broader array of menu items than what we currently have," he added.
McDonald's restaurants slashed their all-day breakfast menu as well as let go of salads, chicken tenders, and grilled chicken sandwiches. McDonald's Corp is hopeful to bring these popular choices back soon, however, some franchisees are wary of the expanding menu.
New items, like the McDonald's crispy chicken sandwich (the one that was meant to rival Popeyes), is now on the backburner. Other halted plans include new baked goods to be served with breakfast. Business-wise, the Coronavirus Outbreak kept people at home and caused the company's breakfast sales to decline. Everyone was eating breakfast at home and not in the car on the way to work. "Prior to COVID, breakfast represented 25% of US sales, and was [McDonald's] most profitable daypart, primarily due to beverage margin," O'Cull said to CNBC.
Will all-day breakfast be back soon? We'll have to wait and see.
