Damn that was a good read. I dropped this here recently, but I'll do it again here: http://i.imgur.com/F6U7d.png IMHO the McRib suggests that there is fertile ground in the shaped meat space. The boundary could be pushed just a bit further. After 30 years, we are ready for something a bit more risque. Maybe a patty in the shape of a steer head?
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...
That's about the only real advantage to living in Los Angeles - out here, chains just don't really compete. Competition is fierce enough, and people want it badly enough, such that the Olive Gardens and Tony Romas of the world aren't nearly as ubiquitous. I'm sure there's plenty of Sysco in what I eat but having spent way too much time on cooking shows I'm a bit of a snob about what I pay someone else to cook for me.
More than anyone the big distributors are responsible for the homogenization of the American Palate.