"I'm Lovin' It" is a popular McDonald's slogan that sums up the way millions of customers
feel about the fast food chain.
But this doesn't mean McDonald's never falls on its face.
Over the years, the chain has offered products that have fallen hard and leave us scratching
our heads.
So let's check out more of the top 10 failed McDonald's products.
The Angus Burger
McDonald's has become a very successful business selling billions of decent hamburgers at reasonable
prices.
McDonald's charged ahead in 2009 with its introduction of the Angus Burger, the first
big chain to offer a genuine Angus beef patty.
Angus beef comes from a breed of cows raised in Scotland.
However, because McDonald's is a global corporation, you didn't have to travel to the Scottish
highlands to get a taste of this premium beef.
The fast food chain test marketed its Angus burger in several American markets, including
Chicago and upstate New York.
Yes, the taste was said to be better than McDonald's standard beef patties, so who wouldn't
want that?
How could better beef possibly be a fail?
Well unfortunately, this premium beef came at a cost, literally.
The price of beef was at an all time high around the time the sandwich was being sold.
And so the price for premium beef was even higher.
Higher than people were expecting from McDonald's at the time.
So this one had all the right ingredients, just not at the right price.
The Big N' Tasty
Big N' Tasty might be an appropriate description of this particular hamburger introduced by
McDonald's in 1997.
It was one of several burgers the fast food chain developed to compete with Burger King's
flagship sandwich, the Whopper.
The Big N' Tasty was test-marketed in California and was slowly rolled out to a national market
in 2000.
The Big N' Tasty burger became one of the key items on McDonald's dollar menu when it
was first introduced, but in 2003 it was removed from the dollar menu, where the double cheeseburger
took its place.
This is just one sign that the burger just wasn't selling very well.
It sold well during the initial advertising period, but slowed down.
In order to get permanent menu status at McDonald's, the item must sell very well consistently.
This was just not the case for the Big N' Tasty and it was discontinued in America in
2011, but the story does not end here.
A similar burger called the Big Tasty, without the N, is currently offered at McDonald's
locations in parts of Europe, South America and the Middle East.
And for those of you in America, there is still hope!
It's said that the Quarter Pounder with cheese Deluxe, hold the cheese, is essentially a
Big N' Tasty!
That's a McWrap
McDonald's is of course famous for its hamburgers and fries.
When it has branched out into serving chicken, the results have been decidedly mixed.
The fast food chain can definitely point to the Chicken McNugget as a success story, but
we, in turn, can point to the McWraps as a product that failed.
Chicken placed in a flour tortilla was supposed to be aimed at younger, supposedly more health
conscious customers who may have been reluctant to embrace the heavier burgers and fries.
Premium Mcwraps were introduced in 2013 and were touted as "Subway busters" However, McDonald's
apparently over estimated millennials' desire for lighter fare at the fast food chain and
had to eat its words.
By 2016 McWraps were being phased out.
Some of the McWraps were relatively healthy and featured grilled chicken and some vegetables,
but you would have had to be wary of any creamy sauces.
The fried chicken McWrap didn't make any sense; customers might as well have ordered the McNuggets.
McDonald's, of all corporations, should have known that its customers don't frequent its
restaurants searching out healthier options because there are plenty of other restaurants
for that.
McStuffin It
You might not know what a McDonald's McStuffin is, as opposed to a McMuffin.
But you might know what a Hot Pocket is; and a McStuffin is the McDonald's version of a
Hot Pocket.
You could also think of them as a hamburger chain's misguided attempt to offer its customers
a fast food take on a calzone.
This 1993 concoction featured a french bread shell filled with pepperoni and melted cheese.
Perhaps it was predictable to customers, that the McStuffin would fail.
A lot of people actually enjoyed the McStuffins, the 4 varieties they came in were unique and
all had fans.
Heck this idea might even work better today then it did back then.
That said, very shortly after being released, McStuffins were taken off the menu, and Hot
Pockets still seem to be the main reason why.
If you had to have a Hot Pocket, even in the 1990s, all you had to do was open your freezer,
grab a hot pocket, put it in the microwave for a few minutes and bingo!
With little effort at home you had a hot and tasty enough snack.
Why would you go to McDonald's to get one of these marginal items instead of a Big Mac
and fries?
Unfortunately for McDonald's, They were never able to answer that question either.
McCrab Cake Sandwich
McDonald's tried a McLobster Roll, and that didn't go very well, so the fast food chain
decided to double down with the introduction of its McCrab cake sandwich.
In 2003, McDonald's tested this new sandwich in 35 restaurants along the Eastern seaboard.
A similar crab-based sandwich was tried in limited areas in 2001 and 2002.
The company supposedly learned from these trials when it introduced the 2003 version.
Unfortunately, McDonald's version of the crabby patty didn't go over any better than the previous
version did.
Between the lobster roll and the crab cake sandwich, it's long past the time the fast
food chain should have resigned itself to the fact that it should stick to the Filet-O-Fish
sandwich, which has been popular for decades.
But instead of being satisfied with that, Mickey D's seemed to go out of its way to
fail.
It should not have been surprising to the fast food chain that a crab sandwich would
fail to compete in coastal areas where high quality seafood is abundant.
McDonald's Roast Beef Sandwich
What is it about success that has made McDonald's implement a series of embarrassing changes
to its popular menu?
We've already gone over items like the ill-fated McStuffin, but then there is the Roast Beef
sandwich that was meant to compete with Arby's, a restaurant well known for roast beef sandwiches
- this is what Arby's does.
It's their thing and they seem to do it pretty well.
Customers go to Arby's mostly for the roast beef sandwiches, not the burgers.
Apparently, back in 1968 McDonald's didn't think it had cornered the market enough when
it came to the hamburger and fry business so it went after Arby's.
The McDonald's version of the Arby's sandwich came with a packet of barbecue sauce and it
sold pretty well, but McDonald's soon realized there was a problem - aside from the basic
fact that they weren't Arby's.
Equipping every McDonald's location with its own meat slicer was so prohibitively expensive
that even if brisk sales were maintained, the Mickey D's roast beef sandwich would never
see a profit.
After confronting this fact, McDonald's dropped the sandwich and it never returned.
Just a McSalad Shaker
Salads can be a lot healthier than much of the food served at fast food chains like McDonald's.
Salads that are made with fresh vegetables and grilled meat with low calorie dressings
are good choices.
However, this isn't necessarily what you were getting if you ordered a McSalad Shaker.
These failed fast food salads featured ingredients such as cheese, eggs and your choice of creamy
salad dressings.
When these high fat ingredients are used generously, the salads could rival the fat found in a
McDonald's hamburger.
McSalad Shakers were introduced in the U.S. market in 2000 and they were supposed to give
customers a healthier option, The failed salad in a cup idea makes sense only as a matter
of convenience because you could try to eat them while you're driving your car, but why
would you want to?
McDonald's Cheddar Melt
Cheeseburgers are popular so it stands to reason that a burger with melted cheese - such
as McDonald's Cheddar Melt - should have been popular too.
This burger with melted cheddar and grilled caramelized onions served on a rye bun has
been offered to the public several times, but hasn't gotten the response the fast food
chain has been hoping for.
The lack of enthusiasm for this burger is a bit of a mystery because cheddar cheese
and grilled onions sounds like a can't-miss combination.
But so much depends on the execution of the idea, and perhaps that's where McDonald's
fell short on this one.
However, the Cheddar Melt is pretty popular with a certain segment of the public even
though it hasn't been around in a while.
This burger even has a dedicated Facebook page where fans of the sandwich hope to convince
McDonald's to bring it back once again.
At least one fan of the failed cheddar burger suggested the Cheddar Melt could become a
secret menu item, but this just seems like wishful thinking.
Onion Nuggets
Introduced back in the mid 1970s as one of the first dollar menu items, Onion Nuggets
were, exactly what they sound like they were.
These bite sized, deep fried onion snacks were similar in shape to McDonald's famed
Chicken McNuggets, which didn't even exist yet at the time.
Yes, Onion Nuggets preceded Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's.
These Onion Nuggets really do sound awesome for those of us who love some good onions
rings.
That said, Onion Nuggets unfortunately never made it past the test market stage.
McDonald's was viewing these as an alternative to french fries for some customers.
But McDonald's french fries are a favorite of the majority of their fan base, making
an alternative, not that intriguing.
With lacklustre sales, Onion Nuggets simply disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
Making it one of the McDonald's unicorns that more people have heard about then actually
seen or eaten.
To pour salt on the wound, shortly after the discontinuation of Onion Nuggets, McDonald's
introduced their Chicken McNuggets in 1980, and they obviously became a huge success for
the fast food giant.
But don't forget, Onion Nuggets came first!
Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich
The Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich seems like it should have been a winner.
The sandwich was introduced to customers in 1979 as a speciality sandwich and McDonald's,
no doubt, had high hopes for its success.
It consisted of an elongated beef patty that sat on a hoagie style bun and was topped with
onions and steak sauce.
Interestingly, this sandwich was sold between 4:00 and 9:00 pm.
Presumably the Chopped Beefsteak Sandwich was meant to inject some class into a fast
food chain largely thought of at the time as a children's restaurant.
Although customer satisfaction with this sandwich was very high, with some apparently saying
it was the best McDonald's sandwich they'd ever had, it never got out of the test phase.
Price was likely a major reason for this.
At a time when the standard burger cost only 40 cents, the Chopped Beefsteak cost a relatively
pricey $1.29.
Even though it failed in 1979 perhaps the time is right for McDonald's to bring this
one back for another try.
They should bring back the fried onion nuggets too and see what happens.
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