McDonalds’ and the hype for Szechuan Sauce

On Saturday, 10/7/2017, McDonald's brought back the Szechuan dipping sauce for one day only. People crossed state and national border lines just to get this sauce from select locations. And because McDonald's did not correctly anticipate the hype behind this sauce, supply quickly ran out within minutes, leaving thousands upon thousands of unsatisfied fans. As a result of this unsatisfied demand, McDonald's has pledged to bring back the Szechuan sauce back for the winter, but only for this winter. Despite the colossal desire for this sauce, McDonald's still grudgingly refuses to bring it back for good. What factor, that outweighs the profit they would make from this, would make the company not let Szechuan return indefinitely?

While I do understand that this hype is generated from the show ‘Rick and Morty’, there is still an undeniably large demand for this sauce. There may be some variability to this, but McDonald's currently offers about 18 different sauces. Unless you are a McDonald’s employee, the average joe will not be able to name off even half of those. This is where the Szechuan comes; knowledge. People actually know about this sauce thanks to ‘Rick and Morty’, which is why it has potential to be a goldmine. Right now, the demand and supply for this sauce is so disproportionate, that people are selling this sauce from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

McDonald's is a multi-billion dollar company. It is easy for me to look at this situation from the outside and just say what they should do, but I am sure it is not all that simple. The company probably employs some top notch financial and marketing advisers. I am sure they know what they are doing, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out their reasoning for not bringing back the Szechuan sauce for good.