ALBANY, N.Y. -- Fast-food chains are extending their hours to feed a burgeoning market of night owls and ultra-early risers and help wring more sales out of their existing restaurants, said a report in the Wall Street Journal.
For Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp., the hours of midnight to 5:00 a.m. are the fastest growing time segment in its U.S. business. Nearly 40% of its U.S. outlets are now open around the clock, up from about 30% seven years ago.
Pat Treffiletti, a franchisee who owns four McDonald's in Albany, N.Y., was taken aback when a student in a college class he addressed a few years ago asked him why he couldn't get a Big Mac at 3:00 a.m.
"I said it's because we're not open," he responded.
He decided to see if there was any reason to be open at that hour, so he drove around the city late at night and was surprised by how much traffic he saw on the streets. Health-care centers were open late and delivery drivers were dropping off goods at stores.
"I started talking to my customers and they said they'd love it if we'd be open late. Customers' lifestyle patterns have changed dramatically. Years ago, convenience was about having the right location. Now it's a lot more than that," he told the newspaper.
Treffiletti, who put two of his restaurants on a 24-hour schedule two years ago and a third 18 months ago, recently began offering a limited breakfast menu after midnight, in addition to burgers and fries, since some people are just starting their day when they come in and others are ending it.
He said his "wee-hour" customers are a mix of college students seeking a bite after the bars close, late-shift workers, some of whom have taken on second jobs to make ends meet, and elderly patrons who are up early. At 2:00 a.m. on a recent Friday, more than 20 customers were dining inside a 24-hour McDonald's on Chicago's North side.
Ernest Roberson, a security guard at the McDonald's, told the Journal that the customers usually consist of bar hoppers and homeless people, but also a steady stream of police officers, transit workers, parking attendants and construction workers.
To some degree, McDonald's and others are just satisfying late-night appetites that have long had few options. But companies say market research shows demand is growing. Dunkin' Donuts, long a morning destination, has been pushing deeper into the evening because "our research and feedback from franchisees indicates we're seeing very strong growth in the evening hours," John Costello, chief marketing and innovation officer for Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin Brands Group Inc., told the paper. He declined to break out specific sales trend information.
"I think we really have moved to a clockless day," Costello added. "People are working longer hours, in many cases multiple jobs, and are more time-starved than ever before and they want the flexibility to have a full variety of products that aren't limited by time of day."
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