In a press release on September 1, 2015, McDonald’s announced the introduction of All Day Breakfast to their menu.
Breakfast, long a public favorite, lived on their menu since the seventies. To the fury of many, it was only available until mid-morning. Now, that would all change. The breakfast window would remain open.
…but not for long.
McDonald’s no longer serves All Day Breakfast.
Scarcity Drives McDemand
I never liked McMuffins to begin with, so this will be easy to say: All Day Breakfast is a bad idea.
At least, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be—for different reasons than you think.
Despite excitement around the announcement, All Day Breakfast sales were reportedly weak, and COVID served as cover to the reel back the change. In recent statements, McDonald’s demonstrates no excitement to bring back breakfast. Three years after the pandemic struck, that’s all I need to know.
The psychology makes perfect sense, from McDonald’s perspective and from ours.
There’s a marketing axiom: scarcity drives demand. One awful way to sell a product is to tell your customer, “We’ll still have plenty next month.” On the contrary, companies offer limited drops and flash sales.
They want to force a decision.
And this is the part that interests me. I readily assume that McDonald’s is trying to sell me. They want my money. The more interesting question to ponder is how a fandom of breakfast lovers failed to support their prized menu. They beg for it back, but they never bought it.
They never put their muffin where their mouth is.
McMoral of the Story
Have you ever woken up on a Saturday morning free from obligations? I know, these days are rare.
I find that, left alone, I accomplish little in these times. It’s the day when I could accomplish anything that I tend to accomplish nothing. On the other hand, it’s on a packed day that I’ll accomplish even more than expected. I’ve written songs, cleaned rooms, paid bills in the fifteen minutes between this class and that appointment.
When a window of opportunity is always open, it forces no decisions.
I intend to do so much, but if life forces zero, I’m left to force myself.
Customers hated the feeling of rushing from the house for a McGriddle. But as it turns out, the deadline was their nudge to do so.
This is the flipside of our on-demand culture. We can do things whenever we want, which ironically removes the impetus to do them. We make the big decisions, but a million little possibilities pile up in the bottom of the bag.
If the post office and the bank both close at five, you’ll pick whichever is important today. And you’ll sleep fine knowing you prioritized.
When the bank is on your phone, though, the decision is never forced, and priorities (rooted in limitation) are never realized. You lay in bed guilty that you aren’t up making another transfer, paying another bill, sending another email.
Standard business hours are not just incentives, they’re excuses.
As they’re quietly removed, nothing forces us to act, and nothing gives us permission to pause.
Force a McDecision
Several weeks ago, a fake tweet went viral, fooling (and enraging) the masses.
“Let There Be Breakfast,” it read. “McDonald’s is making breakfast history again by offering All Day Breakfast nationwide...” Fans exploded with praise, not realizing this was a screenshot from the old 2015 announcement.
Modern life will continually provide us more opportunities and options. We’ll continue to beg for them.
My suggestion is twofold:
The unlimited isn’t as great as we assume. Some limitations and restraints bring shape and order.
When fewer decisions are forced, that doesn’t mean you can’t force them.
Life has always required discipline; perhaps today it’s required more widely.
It would be a shame if unlimited possibility led us to faintness of life. We may as well force our own decisions—and order while the window is open.
Notes:
My professor has challenged us to rewrite pieces in half the words, and I tried the same here. I didn’t quite make half, but the above was my rewrite of this early post.
For more on this subject, check out the most recent episode of Coming Along Nisly. My brother, Rich, and I approach the ‘unlimited’ problem within two very different contexts.
"They never put their muffin where their mouth is." I laughed out loud. I had french toast for lunch yesterday, but even as someone who loves breakfast all day I could see myself not showing up for it once they made it happen.
Unlike Burger King ---"We Don't Get To Have It Our Way" But Burger King does not serve breakfast all day. So we don't get to have it "Our Way" there either.