Fast-Food Restaurants Aim to Revive After-Lunch Sales

Not that many years ago, Starbucks Corp. could depend on a surefire way to keep its stores busy in the afternoons: whipped cream-topped Frappuccino sugar bombs. Customers didn’t seem to care that a medium java-chip Frappuccino has 470 calories and about 16 teaspoons of sugar. But as American palates and schedules have morphed, the world’s biggest coffee chain has struggled to keep its baristas making drinks after the lunch rush dies down.

This is no small problem. The coffee chain is closing U.S. cafes and laying off corporate employees amid faltering sales, in part because of sluggishness in the afternoon daypart (an industry term). And when hedge fund manager and activist investor Bill Ackman disclosed a $900 million stake in Starbucks in October, he noted that weak afternoons and the “consumer shift away from Frappuccino and lack of food innovations” were hurting the company’s business.