海角大神

An Egg McMuffin after 10:30? For many consumers, it's just become a reality.

After months of testing in markets across the country, McDonald's聽began聽its all-day breakfast menu聽Tuesday Oct. 6聽at more than 14,300 restaurants nationwide. The change is prompted in party by a long-term shift in American work schedules, which is reflected by changes in eating habits.聽

Last聽month, the company said all-day breakfast 鈥溾�� from customers. In the past year, more than 120,000 people have聽tweeted McDonald鈥檚 asking for breakfast throughout the day.

With this move, the company is hoping appease customers who聽are demanding for breakfast to be served all day, while at the same time launching new offerings to reverse in the United States.

Serving breakfast all day while remaining quick and consistent is, however, , writes聽Emily Byrd for QSR Magazine.

For instance, even though McDonald鈥檚 declared "It's time for breakfast on your terms," the menu is limited to 鈥� Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin with Egg, Sausage Burrito, Sausage McMuffin, Hash Browns, Hotcakes, Hotcakes and Sausage, Fruit & Maple Oatmeal, and Fruit 鈥楴 Yogurt Parfait 鈥� and items available vary by location,

The all-day breakfast menu offer comes amid intensifying competition in the breakfast category, 聽Taco Bell launched a breakfast menu last year,聽and Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, and Subway have also taken large wedges of market share from the fast food breakfast pie, 海角大神 reported.

America is shifting to an all-day breakfast society. According data from the NPD Group in the year ended in June, and the total morning meal visits are forecast to grow by 7 percent over the next nine years.聽

鈥淏reakfast continues to be a bright spot for the restaurant industry as evidenced by the number of chains expanding their breakfast offerings and times,鈥� Bonnie Riggs, NPD鈥檚 restaurant industry analyst says.聽 鈥淎 restaurant morning meal serves a variety of needs. In addition to helping us jump start our day, it satisfies the need for convenience, is less costly than other restaurant meals, and is readily available to us.鈥澛�

So how did we become a nation of all-day breakfast eaters?

It all has to do with the switch to urban, factory-driven lifestyles, that transformed people鈥檚 work schedules, and thus their eating habits, Jessica Mendoza reported for the Monitor.

Unable to go home in the middle of the day for the traditional noon 鈥渄inner,鈥� for instance, Americans began packing quick, easy lunches 鈥� sandwiches, pies, biscuits 鈥� saving the evenings for sit-down, family-oriented affairs.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the meal that shapes work,鈥� Abigail Carroll, food historian and author of 鈥淭hree Squares: The Invention of the American Meal鈥� . 鈥淚t鈥檚 the work that shapes the meal.鈥�

鈥淎s our lifestyles have shifted, so have our morning routines,鈥澛�. 鈥淭he trends that are driving Americans' desires to be plugged in and productive are also driving the way they fuel up at the start of each day.鈥�

鈥淲ith the increasingly busy lifestyles we lead today, consumer interest is definitely stemming from the blurring of normal meal periods,鈥� Annika Stensson, director of research communications at the National Restaurant Association,聽. 鈥淲ho doesn鈥檛 like some good pancakes, no matter what time of day it is?鈥�