Given how often food writers hail a new era of healthy eating for America, it's odd how every few months there seems to be another explosive fast-food-product launch, resulting in near riotous enthusiasm. KFC practically ignited World War III with free coupons for its grilled chicken; the company's surreal Double Down bunless "sandwich" received a likewise deafening response. June brought us Burger King's out-of-nowhere experiment with pork ribs, which turned out to be so spectacularly successful that the chain sold 10 million of them and ran low on ribs a week before it planned to end the limited-time offer. Reaction from the business press was almost breathless in its admiration. "BK Ribs So Hot They're Nearly Sold Out," ran the headline on MSN.
That surprised a lot of people, including me. For one thing, ribs seemed to be way, way outside Burger King's core competency, which is usually a recipe for disaster with something as tricky as barbecue. Moreover, the relatively tiny portions cost a lot by fast-food standards: more than $7 per order. That ends up being a little less than a dollar for each St. Louis–style sparerib, which is essentially a thumb-size object that is mostly bone. Even a runway model couldn't fill up on an eight-pack of these hors d'oeuvres. I would wager that most customers hedged their bets with a double cheeseburger, as I did. But I would also wager that they were taken quite by surprise at how much better the ribs were than anyone had a right to expect. (Nobody is overly pleased by the cost, which is a sop to franchises going broke from having to sell double cheeseburgers for $1. A popular, high-margin item was just what they needed to keep them happy.) Burger King was as surprised as everyone else. "We began to run out of the packaging for the larger portions within the first few weeks," says John Schaufelberger, senior vice president of global product marketing and innovation. Even Burger King didn't think people would be eager to pay almost $8 for cut ribs! But they were. And the reason may well have been that the ribs were not three times removed from their animal origins; they were much closer to food as it exists in the real world. That was their appeal, I think — but also the problem for Burger King and the rest of the fast-food industry.
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