Extremely Rare McDonald's Product - Shrimp McBites
Mar 7, 2022 0:58:25 GMT
nostalgiaguy, surrealkangaroo, and 3 more like this
Post by pleaseshrimpmcbites on Mar 7, 2022 0:58:25 GMT
This is my first post on the LMW forum, so I do hope that this is the correct location for this particular subject - I also hope I am providing enough relevant information in which it is possible to aid in the search. I am user /u/StreetLander on reddit and I began this search a few months ago. I figured it would be best to expand the discussion to different places in order to see if I can run into someone who knows what to do.
Essentially, this is what I am desperately searching for - photographic evidence of what may possibly be the rarest McDonald's product ever served.
Again, this is not real, but a mockup.
I attempted to order this product once, and was unable to, and instead had them substituted for Fish McBites. This distinct interaction with the McDonald's is the reason why I am sure I am not mistaking this for a foreign release or another product. I saw the advertisement outside the McDonald's, attempted to order it, and failed. If I had received the product perhaps I wouldn't be as upset at the lack of imagery of it now. The product was available at the same time Fish McBites were available, as part of the push of seafood for lent, in 2013 (it would have been around this time of the year, as I am posting this thread in 2022)
My immediate family also remembers Shrimp McBites. Previously, before making the first reddit thread, the only evidence of Shrimp McBites ever being mentioned online was in a single forum post, here.
Later in that same thread, another reddit user /u/mosscoveredrockz noted that if you search up Shrimp McBites on Twitter, you can find many tweets from separate users at around the same time period discussing the product. This isn't proof that the product actually existed, but it is at least proof that some sort of large scale confusion occurred?
However, another reddit user, /u/Brenden2000, was able to successfully contact a representative at McDonald's customer service through email, giving us the first solid confirmation that Shrimp McBites were real and not a collective hallucination.
Transcript of email:
Hello Brenden:
Thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's about our Shrimp McBites, March 25-April 29, 2013.
Shrimp McBites were breaded whole shrimp with a crispy outer coating and a mild salt & pepper flavor. Served with a cocktail sauce in a container designed for easy handling on the go.
They were available in three sizes: Snack (10 pieces), Regular (15 pieces) or Sharable (30 pieces).
At these 3 store locations:
--#02106 300 E. Roosevelt Rd., Lombard IL
--#07124 2175 W. Roosevelt Rd., Wheaton IL
--#10742 2030 S. Naperville Rd., Wheaton IL
I hope this information is helpful.
Again, thank you for contacting McDonald's about our Shrimp McBites. We hope to have the opportunity of serving you again soon under the Golden Arches.
Teawana
McDonald's Customer Contact Center
However there was one huge problem - only 35 days total, at a whopping 3 locations in one general area (Note, near McDonald's Headquarters, lending to the fact that this was most likely a very narrow test market product). This is a blip in the history of McDonald's. However now we have a definitive date, and location for when they were served. Sadly it is incredibly narrow.
I have never heard of a narrower test market before, and the fact that I was never able to actually successfully purchase this product, actually have it in my hands, leads me to believe that it never even reached consumers. Some sort of test market cut short due to budget cuts? An important thing to note is that all the twitter posts regarding Shrimp McBites only mention people wanting to try them, or thinking about trying them, **no one** ever actually expressed an opinion on how they were. There is not a single confirmation that anyone has ever actually eaten these, let alone any evidence of them 9 years later.
McDonald's products have left the lost media community stumped many times before - The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald VHS, McDonald's DS. Despite those suffering from issues such as geographic separation, language barriers, and the scarcity of limited release physical media, they were both eventually found after extensive effort.
McDonald's HAS served shrimp in other forms in foreign markets, this shows that they have had shrimp products before. This however is a product from the United States. This is also a relatively recent release, in terms of lost media. I am absolutely surprised that this somehow slipped through the cracks, at around this time fast food review on YouTube and elsewhere had already established themselves.
The fact that this product was available in only 3 locations, for barely over a month, with not a SINGLE personal account of anyone ever actually trying it, and not a SINGLE photograph of the product or any associated media related to its advertising lends me to believe that this very well be one of the rarest, if not *the* rarest product that McDonald's had ever released.
I would be lying if this mystery didn't drive me at least a little bit crazy. I was so close yet so far from actually trying these, and always felt insane when no one had ever heard of them. I can only be at peace if someone were to manage to find an actual image of this product I remember seeing almost a decade ago.
Essentially, this is what I am desperately searching for - photographic evidence of what may possibly be the rarest McDonald's product ever served.
Note, this is NOT a real image. This is how I remember the product looking like, in its advertising.
I attempted to order this product once, and was unable to, and instead had them substituted for Fish McBites. This distinct interaction with the McDonald's is the reason why I am sure I am not mistaking this for a foreign release or another product. I saw the advertisement outside the McDonald's, attempted to order it, and failed. If I had received the product perhaps I wouldn't be as upset at the lack of imagery of it now. The product was available at the same time Fish McBites were available, as part of the push of seafood for lent, in 2013 (it would have been around this time of the year, as I am posting this thread in 2022)
My immediate family also remembers Shrimp McBites. Previously, before making the first reddit thread, the only evidence of Shrimp McBites ever being mentioned online was in a single forum post, here.
I originally posted these images within this reddit thread in /r/lostmedia. When I first posted the thread, I wasn't even sure if that product was actually real.
For years I believe that maybe they were some sort of strange dream or confusion I had with similar products. At around the same time, they had been serving Fish McBites
Later in that same thread, another reddit user /u/mosscoveredrockz noted that if you search up Shrimp McBites on Twitter, you can find many tweets from separate users at around the same time period discussing the product. This isn't proof that the product actually existed, but it is at least proof that some sort of large scale confusion occurred?
However, another reddit user, /u/Brenden2000, was able to successfully contact a representative at McDonald's customer service through email, giving us the first solid confirmation that Shrimp McBites were real and not a collective hallucination.
Transcript of email:
Hello Brenden:
Thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's about our Shrimp McBites, March 25-April 29, 2013.
Shrimp McBites were breaded whole shrimp with a crispy outer coating and a mild salt & pepper flavor. Served with a cocktail sauce in a container designed for easy handling on the go.
They were available in three sizes: Snack (10 pieces), Regular (15 pieces) or Sharable (30 pieces).
At these 3 store locations:
--#02106 300 E. Roosevelt Rd., Lombard IL
--#07124 2175 W. Roosevelt Rd., Wheaton IL
--#10742 2030 S. Naperville Rd., Wheaton IL
I hope this information is helpful.
Again, thank you for contacting McDonald's about our Shrimp McBites. We hope to have the opportunity of serving you again soon under the Golden Arches.
Teawana
McDonald's Customer Contact Center
ref#:19094176
This is proof that Shrimp McBites are indeed real. The locations listed in the email match the location I had lived in at the time (2013), the description of the product within the email matches the photo reconstructions I had made.
However there was one huge problem - only 35 days total, at a whopping 3 locations in one general area (Note, near McDonald's Headquarters, lending to the fact that this was most likely a very narrow test market product). This is a blip in the history of McDonald's. However now we have a definitive date, and location for when they were served. Sadly it is incredibly narrow.
I have never heard of a narrower test market before, and the fact that I was never able to actually successfully purchase this product, actually have it in my hands, leads me to believe that it never even reached consumers. Some sort of test market cut short due to budget cuts? An important thing to note is that all the twitter posts regarding Shrimp McBites only mention people wanting to try them, or thinking about trying them, **no one** ever actually expressed an opinion on how they were. There is not a single confirmation that anyone has ever actually eaten these, let alone any evidence of them 9 years later.
McDonald's products have left the lost media community stumped many times before - The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald VHS, McDonald's DS. Despite those suffering from issues such as geographic separation, language barriers, and the scarcity of limited release physical media, they were both eventually found after extensive effort.
McDonald's HAS served shrimp in other forms in foreign markets, this shows that they have had shrimp products before. This however is a product from the United States. This is also a relatively recent release, in terms of lost media. I am absolutely surprised that this somehow slipped through the cracks, at around this time fast food review on YouTube and elsewhere had already established themselves.
The fact that this product was available in only 3 locations, for barely over a month, with not a SINGLE personal account of anyone ever actually trying it, and not a SINGLE photograph of the product or any associated media related to its advertising lends me to believe that this very well be one of the rarest, if not *the* rarest product that McDonald's had ever released.
I would be lying if this mystery didn't drive me at least a little bit crazy. I was so close yet so far from actually trying these, and always felt insane when no one had ever heard of them. I can only be at peace if someone were to manage to find an actual image of this product I remember seeing almost a decade ago.
