At McDonalds? They were fried with beef tallow, not lard, so far as I know.
Maybe they just bring back the McRib when they get a good deal on some pork.
Congress is to blame?
Disney movies are different thing in my mind. Surely everyone who walks into a McD with the intention of eating there will buy something regardless of what it is.
And all those people eating McRibs are not eating Big Macs and Quarter Pounders. If the McRib was a permanent item, it’s not just that we’d drive pigs to extinction, but in no time the world would be overrun with cows.
I’m sure there is - you can certainly still buy lard at the grocery store. Hispanic immigrants have probably actually made it more popular - the lard I buy these days now has the Spanish larger and more prominent than the English.
Makes the best tortillas and pie crusts, IMO.
I LOVE the McRib! You people are crazy! 
It depends on how smart the cashier is. When I worked as a cashier at Disneyland, I got a few unusual orders like this. Because I had thoroughly explored the POS menu, I had noticed that we have things like cheese, lettuce, buns, and meat for sale by themselves. So I was prepared when I got such an order, I’d just ring up the items separately and be done in 5 seconds. Some of the other cashiers have no idea of the menu, nor did some of the floor leads. That’s why it took 10 mins for that other poster to get his sandwich and no extra time for you. It depends on the cashier
Of course, sometimes when the order was really really odd, I’d just ring up something of a similar value and call back a special order. If I were a different cashier, I may spend 10 mins talking with a floor lead on the best way to ring up the order and be accurate, but I valued efficiency more. We’d lose more money in that 10 mins of arguing than we’d save by making sure the customer was charged correctly
“The pig?”
“The cow?”
“You’re WAY off. Think smaller. More legs.”
The more sensible story, that limited availability drives up demand, is precisely what my sister was told years ago when she went to McDonalds management camp and received her three-ring-binder. Surely this McDonald’s Exec in the OP knows better than to believe the bullshit story.
I can attest from my personal experience that availability ruined the Honey Barbeque Wings at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I would eat them frequently during limited releases. They were delicious. Then when they became a permanent menu item, it became impossible to get ones that hadn’t dried out under the lights. Arguably, not only were people less compelled to get them when they had all the time in the world, there was a secondary consequence that the lower demand kept them from being available fresh, driving demand down even further.
I think the bigger question then is–why does demand for the McRib benefit from limited availability, and the same is not true for, say, the McDouble or the Filet-o-Fish? Is there some metric which says that people will eat a Big Mac every week, but quickly grow tired of the McRib?
I was home (Michigan) over the weekend, and I couldn’t resist the McRib. I used to love those things. I don’t know if my lack of post-consumption enthusiasm is because my palette has improved since the last time I’ve had one (about 6 years), or because there’s something different about them, or simply because I have incorrect memories about how good they were.
I’m in a pork culture now, and yet the McRib isn’t available. I kind of wish it were. I want to give it another shot. On the other hand, there’s an authentic carnitas restaurant near work, so I guess I’ll just have to survive. I’ve never tried asking for BBQ sauce, sauteed onion, and pickle with my carnitas before. I wonder how they’d react?
I would hope so. Can you imagine how many McRibs would be have to sold to make any sort of dent in the world’s pig population?
I can scarcely imagine without squealing in horror.
The McRib is (as spoofed by the Simpson) a semi-seasonal treat, available only when they feel like making it so. Websites are devoted to spottings of its availability. Faux pork patties are available everywhere, that look and taste pretty similar to the McRib…yet the KFC Double Down becomes a semi-permanent menu item, an item that was seen as a lark, attention getter, and gimmick.
The thing that shocks me is that Wendy’s refuses to bring back the chicken parmesan sandwich. That was one of the best fast food sandwiches I’ve ever had. The mozzarella cost should have been built into the price, and marinara sauce is dirt cheap. I don’t get it. The next time I go to a taste test at the corporate office I’m going to make it a point to mention it again.
The U.S. alone produces almost 25 billion pounds of pork every year. How much pork is in a McRib?
I don’t object to the McRib, but I’ve eaten the fake rib patties you can get in a grocery store. You could do a lot worse for a processed meat food. But it seems like having it with your choice of sauce and bread would be superior anyway, and that option is available at all times. Some things are hard to do at home, but corrugated pork on a bun is not.
You know what else turns out to be available all-year around? Actual ribs. They’re a bit more trouble to cook, but mostly because of the desire to infuse flavor into them. Just jamming them in the oven at a low temperature for a few hours will make them edible under some sauce. Wrap them in foil first if you want the meat falling off the bone. It’s not actually that much more expensive than eating at McDonalds.
None. Pigs love it because it’s all fake, made from soybeans.
Just kidding. 
The McRib is all about two things.
a) marketing buzz;
b) selling fries and drinks (which is the only place McDonald’s makes its money)
It used to make lots of money on real estate as well back in the 70s, but I don’t know if that is still the case now. I doubt it. But I know the food costs on the sandwiches were pretty high (up to something like 95% on the McChicken), whereas soft drinks and fries cost less than the packaging that they were served in.
Well, as far as I can tell, the Double Down is made with items that KFC already has in the store, so they don’t have to worry about extra space. People who have never worked fast food don’t realized how packed to the gills the stores are. The Angus burgers pretty much overstocked McDonald’s. Newer stores are actually getting fitted with new prep tables that have plenty of empty slots for expansion.
Which is really the brilliance of Taco Bell. They can constantly release “new” items using almost nothing but ingredients they already have on hand.