Food Theory: The McRib Conspiracy! (McDonalds)

The "Fake Scarcity" one is the one I figured the most. Every time the McRib comes back, it gets tons of basically free advertising these days, and draws in a lot of people for an average-grade BBQ sandwich. Just get the people excited for a "Limited Time Item" and they will flock in to buy it. It works in basically every industry

8:48 as a McDonald’s employee, I can say that the Big Mac buns are actually not used for any other sandwich either. The Big Mac buns are unique to that sandwich alone. And for the onions used on the McRib, they’re actually just slivered onions, which are also used on the quarter pounder

Also, McRib's time placement is the exact time when BBQs aren't going on, so when people crave the "summer dish" in the fall and winter, McDonalds takes advantage.

4:51 matpat just started rapping

As a former McDonald's employee I can comment on the second theory. The meat is cooked on the same grill that we cook the hamburger meat and a few other breakfast items on and is preinstalled with the setting for rib. The pre cooked rib looks identical to its post cooked version except for it's frozen, uncooked pink color. Having a different bun is no different the the special buns used for the filet o fish (which even has it's own steamer compared to every other bun that uses the same warmer (rib included)). The slivered onions are also already in the store and used for other menu options like quarter pounders. As for shipping, our store never saw an increase in supply traffic from corporate in quantity or frequency. The ribs and their buns were just shipped along with our regular biweekly supply. Finally, labor costs should be negligible (compared to regular) considering there's no pay increase during mcrib season and their simple ingredients list makes them incredibly easy and quick to make even compared to some normal menu items.

As a McWorker myself I can generally say the McRib is one of the easiest sandwiches to assemble and everything we make is basically done the exact same way otherwise. So cost of labor for all sandwiches are basically the exact same across the board because we have one person cook them in mass put them on the hot plates and let the kitchen assemblers slap them together as they’re ordered. The press is something we use for a lot of other products and the onions are just the same as the ones on the quarter pounder.

2:49 when I first was aware that the McRib was a limited time thing that constantly came back, I thought, “they bring it back around the same time of year (maybe idk I don’t pay attention to McRib news) to build hype for it so people who really enjoy them buy a lot of them while newcomers come and see what all the hypes about” that was of course paraphrasing it was probably more like “they bring the McRib back ever so often cause of moni”

7:40 I don't like that my brain saw the ground beef and thought "That's some weird ramen noodles right there."

My dad used to make my brother or I run out to get him a McRib every time the sandwich became available again... until we found a local place that does a (more expensive but objectively better) rib sandwich year round. Hasn't had a McRib since lol

Just a thought, selling themed foods outside of its core season isn't all that crazy. If you are selling it during the same season, you probably get a lot more competition, particular if people are just overdosing on bbq all the time. Having it during off-season means less competition from others, and a higher chance of drawing in a customer who happens to have a craving for bbq.

A minor point here; the onion used on the McRib is one of two types of onions that McDonald's has normally. The slivered onion is also used on the QPC and Double QPC and probably makes an appearance on some other promotional sandwiches. It's not like they have to source or order a special type of onion that they wouldn't already have to get. Love your videos!

7:21 PLEASE TELL MY BUSINESS TEACHER THIS. THIS GIRL EXPECT US TO FIND ALL THIS INFORMATION THE INTERNET T-T

In Germany, the McRib is available all year round. Says something interesting about german meat prices and culture.

I’m gonna correct Mat, as I work in McDonald’s: 1. The onions we use on the McRib are the same as the ones on Quarter Pounders. Those are known as Slivered Onions, while the ones on regular cheeseburgers and big macs are diced onions. 2. The Big Mac buns are actually separate buns from the regular buns. There’s a few different types of Buns: Regular Buns (For cheeseburgers and filet-o-fish), Potato Rolls (For the crispy chicken sandwiches), Big Mac Buns (For the Big Mac), and Quarter Buns (For the quarter pounder). If you want to talk about something that doesn’t make sense, the pickles we use on the Crispy Chicken sandwiches are different than every other pickle. 3. We don’t actually press the McRibs at our locations, that’s how they come to us.

reminds me of the seasonal panera menu. i feel like they use similar tactics with certain foods and i used to get a lot of customers asking for certain “discontinued” items and then panera brings them back with the “it’s back!” tag next to it on the menu

I can tell you as someone who's made them at McDonald's before-most hate making them, including me. The Mcrib has sauce that will cleanse the sinuses and send you into a coma. The sauce gets everywhere since the overnight people don't know how to clean, and it doesn't even taste that good unless it's smothered in the sauce. It's a pain all around from our end. But they keep bringing it back even though it's not horribly popular.

As a former McMinion of 5 1/2 years, I feel I should also weigh in in that the McRib is also... really annoying to make and hold in the UHC/warming cabinet. The patties have to be cooked on a grill (which the clamshell griddles in use when I worked for the company could only cook 6 at a time at most, even if we weren't supposed to cook more than 4 at once) and the sauce, which needs to be removed from its bag, heated in a container, stirred, and then heated *again*, before being put into a holding tray with the patties also has an active shelf life thanks to the pork bathed in it while resting in the cabinet. After about an hour, any remaining sauce in the tray had to be tossed out and replaced with a new batch of sauce, which had to go through the whole process again, generating a lot of food waste from the sauce alone. There's also the matter of space in the UHC. 2-3 slots in an already packed cabinet had to be devoted to the McRib, taking away slots from other high selling items, like the Filet O'Fish, the 10:1 patties used for all of the smaller sandwiches, and of course the Chicken Nuggets. (which their holding tray alone actually requires two slots in the cabinet.)

Everytime the McRib comes back I get excited then experience disappointment, every time

9:00 I work at a McDonald's, and I gotta stop ya right there. The onions are the same as the quarter pounder. So the onions don't cost extra we get the same amount of "slivered onions" as we normally do and we don't go through them any faster. And the patties are shaped like that in factory. We put them on the mcrib setting on the grills and it changed the time and the height of the of the girl's platen. The come with the rib shape. We actually put them "Rob side down" so the bumps are on the bottom metal part of the grill. The only different item is the rib and sauce, and the buns. Everything else is in house and is used for other products.

As someone who lives in Denmark, a 3 hour drive to buy cheap candy/soda in Germany is really just an excuse to get my fill of the McRib. A stable on their menu.