Posted on: Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Hawai'i McDonald's first to serve Spam

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

McDonald's customers are gobbling up more than 3,000 Spam, scrambled egg and rice breakfasts a day after the first few days of a statewide Spam test run.

But it will take until Aug. 1 before the folks at McDonald's decide whether the canned, processed luncheon meat will find a permanent home in the land that loves Spam.

Hawai'i eaters chow down 5.3 million cans of Spam a year, four times the national average. Now Hawai'i's 78 McDonald's restaurants are the first in the world to carry a 500-plus calorie, low-sodium Spam breakfast at an average cost of $2.69.

The Spam breakfast joins a line-up of other Island favorites such as saimin and a Portuguese sausage breakfast.

"I'm not sure why it's taken so long," Melanie Okazaki, marketing manager for McDonald's of Hawai'i, said of the Spam breakfast introduction. "Depending on how it moves will determine whether we keep it on the menu or not."

McDonald's officials will look at sales figures and costs, and issue a report to the "menu management department" at corporate headquarters in Oakbrook, Ill.

Back at Spam's hometown in Austin, Minn., the people at Hormel Foods are excited about the possibility of selling even more Spam in the Islands, where it has been popular since World War II.

They're also busy getting ready for Spam Jam 2002 this month at the Spam Museum, where there's a permanent exhibit dedicated to Spam's ties to Hawai'i.

In a curious twist of Spam fate, every restaurant in Austin carries some sort of Spam dish on its menu — except for McDonald's, said Julie Craven, director of corporate communication for Hormel Foods.