A year ago, McDonald’s was basking in the glory of a successful all-day breakfast launch that boosted sales at the fast-food purveyor’s U.S. restaurants. That savvy move is becoming a bit of a burden early in 2017.
McDonald’s first debuted its all-day breakfast menu in October 2015 and an immediate sales jolt helped boost sales in the U.S. In the fourth quarter of 2015, comparable sales increased 5.7% – the best quarter McDonald’s had reported in nearly four years. Throughout most of 2016, sales continued to hum along smoothly as all-day breakfast lured customers that were persuaded to buy the company’s Egg McMuffin or hash browns for lunch or other parts of the day.
But on Monday, McDonald’s reported a comparable sales decline of 1.3% in the U.S., which the company said reflected “the challenging comparison against the prior year launch of the very successful All-Day Breakfast.”