McDonald's is bringing back the McRib — again

In a surprise announcement on Thursday, McDonald's revealed the upcoming return of its cult classic menu item, the McRib — just in time for the sandwich's 40th anniversary. Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal breaks down the latest.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: McRib fans are rejoicing. McDonald's making it official, saying that they are going to be bringing back the McRib. We want to bring in Alexandra Canal, who has this story for us. And Allie, I've never tried it, but I know it has really built a cult-like following over the years. And people are certainly excited about this news.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: They are, Seana. I tried it for the first time during the last nationwide rollout of the McRib, which was December 2020. And historically speaking, McDonald's, although people love it, they only let out these items seasonally and for a limited time. They will be releasing the McRib on November 1st. It will be available nationwide on menus. As I mentioned, the last time this happened was December 2, 2020. And then there was a limited run October 2019, but that was not nationwide.

But it turns out these seasonal rollouts, these limited time items, they are actually great marketing tools for all of these fast food giants. McDonald's does a similar thing with the Shamrock Shake. They only roll that out during St. Patrick's Day. And then if we look at other brands like Starbucks, for example, they roll out the pumpkin spice latte every fall. And that always leads to a foot traffic boost.

So you can often bring in old customers. You can bring in new customers. And it really helps solidify that customer loyalty. And fun fact here, that the S&P 500 has a higher daily return when the McRib is available. So I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence or if the McRib-- the power of the McRib is coming through in the markets. But I did try it, and I was pleasantly surprised. So maybe you got to give it a shot.