Some Wendy’s restaurants get an early start on breakfast; NRN pops into a California store for a closer look
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Next week, Wendy’s unveils its long-anticipated breakfast menu – a move certain to ignite a quick-service industry Breakfast War.
The timing comes as quick-service rival and the King of Breakfast, McDonald’s, is losing share at breakfast.
Some Wendy’s restaurants are already going to battle ahead of the March 2 launch. Wendy’s locations, aside from 300 stores "that were already serving breakfast" during a long trial period, have started to serve breakfast this week, the company said.
“Over the coming days, it will vary by restaurant when they start to serve breakfast; all should be up and running by March 2,” the Dublin, Ohio-based burger chain told Nation’s Restaurant News.
NRN stopped by a Wendy’s restaurant in Orange, Calif. to check out the lineup.
We also jotted down a few prices to compare with McDonald’s and Jack in the Box restaurants in the same area. Both brands offer breakfast foods all day and have made it clear that they are ready to battle Wendy’s.
“Breakfast is the only daypart in the industry that's seeing traffic growth. We have to win at breakfast,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said during the chain’s recent earnings call.
Last week, Jack in the Box CEO Lenny Comma told analysts that the brand is ready for Wendy’s: “We have a calendar that's ready to compete within the marketplace with some of our best breakfast lineup.”
That calendar is already in motion. During NRN’s scouting trip, we spotted a buzzworthy breakfast LTO that recently debuted on the Jack in the Box menu. And, it’s $1.
For a closer look at the Breakfast War landscape, take a look at our gallery:
Contact Nancy Luna at [email protected]
Follow her on Twitter: @fastfoodmaven
Update: This story was edited 2/26 to clarify details about Wendy's breakfast roll out.
