Breakfast in China traditionally consists of something brothy and stomach-filling, such as congee (a rice-based porridge), wonton soup or xiǎolóngbāo (soup dumplings). Also popular are savory fried foods like scallion oil pancakes – in Shanghai, lines of hungry customers waiting to get their morning pancake fix from places like A Da Cong You Bing can literally stretch around the block. It’s thus no surprise that Western-style grab-and-go breakfast options are of little appeal to locals.
A recent Schumpeter blog post on The Economist’s website looks at the difficulty fast-food chains like McDonald’s have had in selling breakfast in China:
Chinese consumers have yet to be won over by the Egg McMuffin or even the breakfast platter…. No Western fast-food chain has figured out how to please hungry Chinese mouths in the morning.
Paul French of Mintel, a research firm, reckons that the Chinese foreign fast-food market, valued at RMB 87.8 ($13.9) billion, is “underpenetrated” at breakfast time. Only 21% of Chinese eat fast food in the morning, compared to over 75% at lunch time.
Yet some Western chains have had greater success in capturing the Chinese breakfast market. As Culinary Backstreets’ Shanghai correspondents tell us, “McDonald’s doesn’t localize their menu very well. KFC, on the other hand, serves several different types of congee and they do a booming trade in it, from what locals tell us – the airport location usually sells out of it by 7:30 a.m.” It seems that accommodating local tastes and eating habits – which McDonald’s has not managed to do – is the best way for foreign chains to make inroads.
That said, our CB correspondents have little doubt that Shanghai’s breakfast scene will continue to hold its own. They conclude: “There is just so much good, quick, street food in the morning available practically everywhere in Shanghai, so it’s tough for [foreign chains] to compete on speed alone.”
Published on October 25, 2012
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