If at first you don't succeed with a breakfast menu, your name just might be Wendy's. The fast food chain has introduced a breakfast menu on several occasions, dating back to 1985. That first experiment included made-to-order omelettes. Sure, it sounds good, but the reality is that made-to-order slowed down their operations. Slow is a big problem when you're in the fast food industry. Wendy's most recent attempt at breakfast fizzled in 2013 with hardly any notice.
Fast forward to now, and Wendy's has announced that they'll be serving breakfast starting in 2020.
So what makes Wendy's think breakfast will work for them this time, when it's failed so many times before? The answer is in their menu, which seems a lot more Wendy's-like than their previous breakfast attempts. Some of their key items include a Breakfast Baconator, a Frosty-ccino, and a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit. They will also offer seasoned potatoes and croissant sandwiches, and more to come.
Breakfast will roll-out nationwide starting in 2020, but Wendy's press release says that breakfast is already available in about 300 locations. I've seen a few airports that offer breakfast at Wendy's, and the occasional toll road service plaza, but most locations that offer breakfast pretty much always have. They are often 24/7 locations that weren't going to serve a lot of burgers during breakfast hours, so Wendy's improvised. Although in an ironic twist, the new breakfast menu includes a burger... with egg.
This is probably a good time for Wendy's to try again with breakfast. They've been leaving a lot of money on the table by skipping breakfast, because breakfast now accounts for 21% of all revenue.at restaurants nationwide; and its competitor McDonald's makes its biggest profits during breakfast, according to Forbes. Plus, when even Taco Bell can successfully launch a breakfast menu, it's almost embarrassing that Wendy's has so far been unable to.
This time, I'm betting they figure it out. They have a fun, popular Twitter account to help spread the word (and occasionally get into it with competitors). Plus, Taco Bell's Mexican-influenced breakfast menu has shown that people are ready to try something a little different at breakfast. Just get the coffee right, because coffee. I need my coffee!
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And by the way, the new breakfast menu means jobs. Wendy's plans to add 20,000 jobs to serve all those hungry commuters.
[Photo Credit: Wendy's]