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11 Amazing facts about the McDonald's McRib

3.3K views 39 replies 23 participants last post by  Jeff B.  
#1 ·
G
#8 ·
Regarding:

8. McDonald's keeps the McRib scarce because the sandwich's entire brand relies on it.
I actually think this isn't true. There was an excellent article on how McDonald's plays the pig futures market with the McRib -- it's available when pig is cheap. That's why it comes and goes. The raw material to make them is so pricey they need to play the role of a commodities market broker to make the product profitable. There's a really fascinating analysis of it here: http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/a-conspiracy-of-hogs-the-mcrib-as-arbitrage

Though the "official" line is it's popular, but not popular enough to keep it around all the time.

Jim DaddyO: tasty, hope there's not be any of that nasty propane stuff heating the air underneath those tasty looking ribs. :)
 
#9 ·
McRib McShrib - mashed pig nuts and tails - bring back the Filet o' Fish, the only reason for my occasional foray into McDonald's, now gone.
 
#15 ·
you've obviously never had chinese Dim Sum.... yum. that point does not bother me one bit.
I definitely have. I have had it in places where they didn't speak a lick of English too.

The point is that Dim Sum is an experience for food...McDonald's is an excuse for food.
 
#18 ·
We didn't evolve to eat wholesome/healthy foods and all this health/fitness stuff is just another modern affectations like haute couture clothing or reality TV. McDonald's appeals to a vast majority of people because it fulfills primitive/instinctive/survival desires: fat,grease,salt and eating the whole animal = good.

This has served us well up to the last 50 years or so until the invention of the remote control meant that the couch potatoes didn't even have to get up to change the channel on the boob toob. But what I find more hilarious is paying a fitness club to be a silly hamster in a wheel. Those tread mills could at least be hooked up to generators to provide electricity.
 
#19 ·
We didn't evolve to eat wholesome/healthy foods and all this health/fitness stuff is just another modern affectations like haute couture clothing or reality TV. McDonald's appeals to a vast majority of people because it fulfills primitive/instinctive/survival desires: fat,grease,salt and eating the whole animal = good.

This has served us well up to the last 50 years or so until the invention of the remote control meant that the couch potatoes didn't even have to get up to change the channel on the boob toob. But what I find more hilarious is paying a fitness club to be a silly hamster in a wheel. Those tread mills could at least be hooked up to generators to provide electricity.
Remember before remotes when you had to go down to the lumber store and buy two of those 10 foot dowels and tape them together so you could push the buttons on your TV from your couch?
 
#21 ·
Me too. I was the "fine tuning" as well (the person who had to stand by the TV holding the rabbit ears juuuuuuuuuuusssssst so, such that the Stanley Cup game camel clearer.)

And hey, where the deuce is the McLobster in all this? I demand equal time for the McLobster!

Yes, westerners, there really IS a McLobster - McDonald's version of a lobster roll. In fact, I don't think Maritimers can even get McRib down east.
 
#22 ·
Read point 10.

Regarding:



I actually think this isn't true. There was an excellent article on how McDonald's plays the pig futures market with the McRib -- it's available when pig is cheap. That's why it comes and goes. The raw material to make them is so pricey they need to play the role of a commodities market broker to make the product profitable. There's a really fascinating analysis of it here: http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/a-conspiracy-of-hogs-the-mcrib-as-arbitrage

Though the "official" line is it's popular, but not popular enough to keep it around all the time.

Jim DaddyO: tasty, hope there's not be any of that nasty propane stuff heating the air underneath those tasty looking ribs. :)