Taco Bell Grabs for Fast Food Breakfast Market

Taco Bell is the most recent fast food restaurant to enter into the breakfast market. On Thursday Taco Bell began serving breakfast at nearly 800 stores, mostly in western states under the menu heading ‘First Meal’, a play on their slogan for the late night crowd ‘Fourth Meal’. The new menu, which has been tested in selected locations over the past year, features a very basic sausage and eggs wrap, grilled burritos stuffed with eggs and your choice of meats, and hash browns according to an article on Foodbeast.com. They have also partnered with a few other companies, such as Cinnabon, Seattle’s Best and Tropicana to offer their products as well.

Since the economy has gone downhill consumers are being more careful about money spent eating out. This prompts companies in the industry to grab as much of the market as they can – expanding to offer breakfast is a great way to do this. The prices of these new menu items are from 99 cents to $2.79, a price range puts them in direct competition with leaders in the fast food breakfast field like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.

In an interview with USA Today, Taco Bell Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer Brian Nicco says he hopes to see the new menu and hours go into effect at all the stores nation wide by 2014. In speaking about the breakfast market Nicco said: “We want to get our fair share and then some.”

The move to breakfast was influenced in part by studies from NPD research that showed breakfast foods have been responsible for most of the fast food industries growth over the last five years.

In 2010 Subway debuted it’s breakfast menu to great success, expanding it’s market base and cashing in on breakfast consumers. In an interview with Nation’s Restaurant News just four months after it debued Subway’s R&D leader Larry Varvella said sales were split 50-50 between breakfast and lunch items.

Only time will tell if Taco Bells foray into the fast-food breakfast market will mimic Subway’s success.


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