The McRib is returning for the holidays. Why isn’t it sold year-round?

IDAHO FALLS (CNN) — The McRib is returning to menus this holiday season – but don’t get used to it.

McDonald’s announced Wednesday that its famed boneless pork patty sandwich will be available again starting December 3. But, as always, it will only be for a limited time.

And the same goes for another fan-favorite fast food item, Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries, which similarly hasn’t secured a permanent spot on the menu despite its popularity.

Instead, limited offerings like the McRib or the Nacho Fries disappear and reappear with no seeming pattern. Experts say that’s by design.

Beyond boosting profits, highly anticipated seasonal products like the McRib create excitement among fans and an opportunity for companies to play around with promotions.

On the other hand, a strategically timed rollout could also serve to generate positive news about the brand after bouts of bad press.

“This is the playbook for a lot of (quick service restaurants). Bringing back old favorites like the McRib is one of the tools that they use to drive interest and demand,” said Michael Della Penna, chief strategy officer at marketing and measurement platform InMarket. “It gets people excited about visiting. It gets people nostalgic when they remember the product and want to try it again.”

‘Like if Christmas was every day’

Basic supply-and-demand economics will tell you that a good chunk of the McRib’s popularity comes from its scarcity.

“Scarcity adds tension and excitement and anticipation,” said Stephen Zagor, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Business School specializing in restaurants and food enterprises. He says that if McDonald’s offered the McRib as a permanent menu item, “it would be like if Christmas was every day, and we would get bored with it.”

Nearly 30% of quick-service restaurant customers consider the availability of special promotions or deals when deciding between restaurants, according to research by PYMNTS.com, a financial services company.

Starbucks, for instance, saw average foot traffic for all locations increase by 26% a few days after the arrival of their limited-edition holiday drinks in 2022, according to location analytics company GroundTruth.

David Henkes, a senior principal at food industry research and consulting firm Technomic, said that building customer anticipation for the slim window of time that an item is available is much more profitable than keeping it on the menu permanently and seeing weak sales over the whole year.

“If it was something that was on the menu year-round, I think it would be one of those products that would probably be toward the lower end of McDonald’s menu items,” he said.

Plus, history has not always been so kind to the sandwich. The McRib flopped when it debuted in Kansas City in 1981 and was pulled from menus just four years later. But since then, it has become a favorite among McDonald’s loyalists.

Unlike other limited-time products like McDonald’s own pumpkin spice latte and its Shamrock Shake, the McRib is not tied to a specific season or holiday and does not have a fixed spot on the consumption calendar.

Essentially, consumers don’t know when it will show up next — and that element of surprise also drives demand.

“It creates this sense of urgency that you have to get it now because you don’t know when it’s coming back. You don’t know if it’s coming back,” Henkes said. “Whereas for the pumpkin spice latte, you know it’s coming back every fall.”

Beyond that, Henkes says that McDonald’s decision to keep the McRib as a limited-time offer is part of a broader trend of businesses focusing on their primary products and cutting back on their total offerings to boost profit.

Starbucks, for instance, nixed their “Oleato” drink lineup this month as part of the chain’s broader plans to simplify a menu that CEO Brian Niccol called “overly complex.”

Stoking hype

It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that the McRib commands a cult following. It has spawned dozens of Facebook groups, a Reddit forum and even a website dedicated to tracking down sightings of the elusive sandwich across the globe.

It’s so popular that the McDonald’s website listed “Why isn’t the McRib sold year-round?” as a frequently asked question. (“We like to change up our menu throughout the year by offering some limited time only items.”)

Zagor said that McDonald’s standard products — burgers, fries and the like — have all become commoditized. The McRib exists to shake up a familiar lineup.

“To energize their fan base, they create products that become legendary. The McRib is one of them. It has become a legend in its own time,” he said.

McDonald’s has based entire campaigns around the McRib before. When it was released in 2022, the company rolled out a line of McRib-themed merchandise as part of the sandwich’s “farewell tour.” (Spoiler: The McRib came back the next year.) This year, the McRib’s comeback includes the launch of a half-gallon jug of McRib sauce for fans to purchase.

Henkes added that it’s also part of McDonald’s strategy to generate good press about itself after visits to locations plunged following an E. coli outbreak that left dozens of people sick. He described the marketing ploy as a reset that lets McDonald’s start on a clean slate with customers.

“Bringing out one of these fan favorite items puts a more positive spin on what the public is seeing and hearing from McDonald’s,” he said.

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