Study: McDonald's All-Day Breakfast Is Bringing in New Customers

McDonald's launched its all-day breakfast menu nationwide on October 6, meaning hungry customers who show up at 10:31 a.m. with a serious hankering for a sausage biscuit are no longer sent away empty-handed.

And while all-day breakfast may have gotten off to a bit of a rough start, with the expanded menu creating kitchen chaos and added stress for franchisees, it appears to be giving the fast-food chain a boost: A new study from market researcher NPD Group Inc. reveals that the 'round-the-clock Egg McMuffins and hotcakes are driving people that may not otherwise have patronized McDonald's to the stores, reports the Wall Street Journal.

According to the study, which tracks the first two months of all-day breakfast activity by analyzing tens of thousands of sales receipts, "One-third of customers who bought breakfast at McDonald’s beyond the traditional breakfast hours hadn’t visited McDonald’s at all in the month before the company’s all-day breakfast launch in early October." Perhaps the chain is drawing in a whole new group of breakfast-loving customers that just couldn't get out of bed before 10 a.m.: The study also suggests that all-day breakfast could give lunchtime traffic a boost, a period that has previously "been a slow-growing meal time for the chain."

Or maybe McDonald's all-day breakfast offerings are helping it to lure the hordes of Americans that don't typically eat in the early-morning hours: According to a previous study by NPD, one in 10 Americans skips breakfast for various reasons that include not having time or just not being hungry.

Whatever the reasons driving "new and lapsed customers" to the stores, CEO Steve Easterbrook is no doubt feeling awfully encouraged about the early success of all-day breakfast. Back in October McDonald's reported an increase in sales for the first time since 2013 — something it attributed at least partially to the all-day breakfast launch — and per the WSJ, the company is "predict[ing] same-store sales would rise again this quarter across regions."