Here's Why Your Local McDonald's Might Not Carry the McRib

McDonald’s has reintroduced the beloved McRib sandwich to its menus many times over the decades, with its latest revival starting Dec. 4 for a limited time. The offer will be restricted to participating McDonald’s locations, meaning your local neighborhood establishment might not have them on hand. 

Mike Haracz, a former McDonald’s corporate chef, took to TikTok to explain why you might be disappointed if you show up at the Golden Arches and don’t find a McRib. Simply put, any company’s disclaimer that a menu item will be at “participating” locations means the decision on whether or not to sell it will come down to the actual franchise owner. 

“First of all, [for] McDonald’s corporate relationship with owner-operators and franchisees, [in] that agreement there is a core menu that they have to have and there are regional [limited-time offers], national [limited-time offers] that cycle throughout the year [and] every couple of years,” Haracz began. 

“Different McDonald’s are broken up into different regions,” he continued, noting that these regions include areas such as the northeast and southwest United States. “The influential owner-operators in those regions have committees and they vote on if they want to have the thing.”

@chefmikeharacz

Replying to @salukitodd Former #mcdonalds corporate chef talks about participating restaurants. #McRib #mcdonaldshacks #mcdonaldssecrets #mcdonaldsccsing #mcdonaldschallenge #mcdonaldstiktok #mcribisback #mcribszn #mcribsandwich #FYP #fastfood #fastfoodstories #fastfoodlife

♬ original sound – Chef Mike Haracz

These local McDonald’s owners are presented with a proposal from McDonald’s corporate that outlines what the promotion is and when they would like to run it. If it conflicts with another local deal that McD’s in the region are doing, they might opt to pass on the corporate promotion—in this case, the latest revival of the McRib. 

“Those different regions may have some local offerings during the same window that they would rather do, it makes more business sense for them,” Haracz explained. “Maybe they’re in a region where it does not sell well so they do not want to have it, maybe it’s in one of those unique locations like an airport or whatever, and they won’t necessarily have it.”

“So the ‘participating restaurant’ thing is because it is almost never an actual national launch, and this is just to make sure that when you show up and they don’t have it, there’s no issues or legal ramifications you can do to say, ‘Well, they said they were going to have it. Why don’t you have it?’ Because it’s only at participating restaurants,” he added.

If you’re looking to secure a McRib next month, you might want to call your local spot ahead of time to confirm that they have it.