The McRib’s unique aspects and impermanence, many of us believe, make it seem a likely candidate for being a sort of arbitrage strategy on McDonald’s part. Calling a fast food sandwich an arbitrage strategy is perhaps a bit of a reach – but consider how massive the chain’s market influence is, and it becomes a bit more reasonable.
I really like the kind of thinking Willy Staley puts into his piece A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage. 1 The idea the core business of McDonalds is not, in fact, food is wonderfully subversive. And reminds me of a great Planet Money podcast How money got weird, in which Satyajit Das explained how, among other things, an airline company made all its money speculating on oil futures.
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And thanks Sam for the pointer. ↩
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