McDonald's Take On Sub Sandwiches In The '90s Was A Short-Lived Flop

In its many years as a fast food standard-bearer, McDonald's has introduced the public to memorable items like the Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets, and the Egg McMuffin. But McDonald's also has also explored plenty of other short-lived items over the years, including pizza, pineapple sandwiches and spaghetti. That dalliance into other food spaces, includes the McStuffin sandwiches, which McDonald's customers of a certain age may remember from the 1990s.

Introduced in 1993, McStuffins were McDonald's take on sub sandwiches and have been alternatively described as McDonald's version of pita sandwiches or Hot Pockets. Customers could choose one of four options — pepperoni pizza, chicken teriyaki, BBQ chicken and Philly beef and cheese — each of which was stuffed into oven-baked, sesame seed-covered French bread. The company's advertisements called it "the greatest thing since sliced bread," touting the sandwiches as a closely guarded secret and also claimed the bread for the sandwiches was baked fresh all day.

Priced at just $2, the McStuffins seemed like a bargain for their time, but the product had a rough start out of the gate and never seemed to recover. It was tried in several test markets and never caught on, but was introduced nationally anyway. A national launch did nothing to boost its profile on McDonald's menu, and it was apparently discontinued that same year. All the same, we can't say we miss it on McDonald's menus.

McDonald's has had many misfires, but the blink-and-you-miss-it tale of the McStuffins seems surprising even for the Golden Arches. Even the infamous Arch Deluxe got four years on McDonald's menu after it was introduced in 1996 and discontinued in 2000. But why did the McStuffins fail? For starters, McDonald's claim of using daily-fresh baked bread for the sandwiches probably created a logistical nightmare. In an industry built on speed, baking fresh bread every day for the sandwiches proved very time-consuming. McDonald's has never shied away from trying things, but the McStuffins also seemed like something no one asked for. McDonald's Hot Pocket-esque offerings seemed like too big a reach for a chain that built its reputation on burgers and fries — and came after Hot Pockets had already been on the market for a decade.

McStuffins' turn on McDonald's menu was so brief, in fact, that some former employees who worked there in 1993 say they don't remember them. These days, the word McStuffins is likely to evoke the animated Doc McStuffins before anyone thinks of McDonald's. Bottom line, McStuffins' brevity was probably for the best. If you want a hot, stuffed sandwich on the go, we recommend keeping it simple and sticking with Hot Pockets.