At last, the prayers of fast-food consumers who struggle with waking up in the morning have finally been answered. In what is probably one of the biggest societal advancements of our time, McDonald's will begin permanently serving breakfast all day on Tuesday, October 6, after a vote of approval from franchisees and their leadership council.
The Oak Brook–based fast-food chain has seen its sales decline for nearly three consecutive years, but hopes to reverse that trend with the introduction of all-day breakfast. Years of customer requests to serve breakfast all day, combined with the fact that breakfast sales make up 25 percent of the company's U.S. sales, made this an opportunity for growth that McDonald's could no longer pass up.
The good news comes with the caveat that the all-day breakfast menu will be limited to only a few items. Currently, the Golden Arches is only planning to offer sausage burritos, hot cakes and one of either the Egg McMuffin sandwiches or biscuit sandwiches outside of normal breakfast hours, but hopefully that will expand with time—once franchisees get used to frying up eggs next to Big Mac patties on the grill.
Even with the limited menu, it's a major victory for consumers of greasy fast-food breakfast everywhere. No longer are we restricted to enjoying hot cakes exclusively before 10:30am. If you wake up in the middle of Wrigleyville at noon after a rough night out, your hungover self can waltz into the McDonald's near the ballpark to order a couple Egg McMuffins and not be denied. Between this and the Taco Bell in Wicker Park that's set to serve booze, there truly hasn't been a better time to be alive if you're a connoisseur of fast-food.