The interesting thing is that the McRib can use pork that you couldn't use for sausage, which says kind of a lot. That being the case, any "arbitrage" of pork by McDonald's happens post-process, which isn't revealed by the graphs in question. McDonald's is also a lot less monolithic than the author would like. Every McDonald's has some form of regional cuisine; in Maine, it's lobster rolls. In New Mexico, it's breakfast burritos. In Hawaii it's soba noodles. Further, prices are variable depending on market, so long as the price hasn't been fixed by a large national campaign. There's nothing that says McDonald's couldn't charge $1.99 for a McRib in Baton Rouge but $2.99 for one in Biloxi, and there's nothing that says that $2.99 McRib couldn't cost $3.39 a week from now. McDonald's used to charge less for food on arbitrary days; half price hamburgers on Fridays, for example: http://savingscommunity.coolsavings.com/forum/topics/mcdonal...