The McDonald's Snack Wrap disappeared from the fast food chain's menu in 2016, but fans of the beloved item have championed Mickey D's to bring it back.
Loyal McDonald’s fans may remember a particular menu item debut that still hurts to reminisce about due to its removal from the menu: the fast-food chain’s Snack Wrap. Amid the recent announcement about McDonald’s burger changes, you might be wondering about the fate of the Snack Wrap yet again, as the company seeks to alter and improve its menu.
For a refresher, the McDonald’s Snack Wrap launched in 2006 as a healthier snack option and consisted of a few ingredients: your choice of grilled or crispy chicken, cheese, lettuce and sauce nestled in a tortilla. And although it seemed like a successful staple, fans were sorely disappointed when McDonald’s removed the Snack Wrap from its U.S. menu in 2016.
With the McDonald’s Snack Wraps a continual ask from fans who want it back, it’s easy to wonder why McDonald’s hasn’t made it happen yet, not to mention why the chain took them off the national menu in the first place.
Why were Snack Wraps discontinued?
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According to Business Insider, McDonald’s opted to oust the chicken wraps due to the complexity of their assembly. Although one might assume the Snack Wraps weren’t selling (why else would Mickey D’s remove such a sought-after snack?), that wasn’t the case here. Instead, the main issue was the time it took workers to make Snack Wraps. Per Business Insider, the pressure from franchisees, who complained about the Snack Wraps slowing down production, plus the pressure to keep service times low, ultimately moved McDonald’s to nix them from its national menu.
Financial news outlet TheStreet asserts that convincing franchisees to keep the Snack Wrap was a difficult task for McDonald’s, even if fans loved the item. “The challenge with the Snack Wrap is that it is made using processes that don’t match the rest of the kitchen. That was something franchisees were willing to put up with when it was a huge seller, but became something they pushed back against when sales slowed,” writes Daniel Kline of TheStreet.
While McDonald’s employees and franchisees may not have been fans of Snack Wraps, some devotees want them back. Since Snack Wraps disappeared from the McDonald’s menu, fans have taken their Snack Wrap complaints to Twitter and several Change.org petitions to bring them back exist, with creation dates stemming as far back as 2017. Two petitions, in particular, have over 17,000 signatures. At the time of publication, one has 17,144 signatures, and the other has 17,780.
McDonald’s even invited fans to comment on which menu items they’d like to see return, but this move didn’t help Snack Wrap fans get what they wanted. In April 2022, the company tweeted “bring back _____.” One scroll through the thread, and it’s easy to see fans were still asking for the Snack Wrap six years after its disappearance.
Will McDonald’s ever bring Snack Wraps back?
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So far, McDonald’s has not attempted to bring back its infamous chicken wrap, but is there any hope for the future? TheStreet points to an area that could serve as a smart reintroduction for Snack Wraps—McDonald’s Malaysia’s new breakfast wraps. But despite McDonald’s restaurants in other countries selling Snack Wraps or related items (notably England and Canada), the McDonald’s Snack Wrap coming back doesn’t seem to be a likely priority for McDonald’s home country—even as a part of the McDonald’s secret menu. With petitions, tweets and other fan asks going unheard for years, and the fact that McDonald’s strives for quick production, these fan-favorite bites may be a thing of the past.
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Sources:
Business Insider: “Why McDonald’s got rid of the snack wrap — and why it’s not coming back any time soon”
TheStreet: “McDonald’s Adds a New Snack Wrap (You Won’t Be Happy)”
The small, affordable, and imminently snackable item had a ravenous and loyal fan base, but that alone isn't enough for it to make a comeback, says Chef Mike Haracz in a video posted on TikTok. One of the reasons he gives for the snack wrap's demise is "operational complexity." "It's harder to make," says Haracz.
The wrap isn't gone for good, McDonald's says, but it has been temporarily taken off menus because the restaurant chain is concerned that there's so much demand for it that they won't have enough breakfast ingredients to stock the rest of their early morning menu.
"This test is currently taking place at several stores in North Carolina, and while it's quite limited, it's a great indicator of @McDonald's future plans for the McCrispy platform as well as the snack wrap, which they hinted could eventually be returning sometime during 2025."
So when the wrap was taken off the menu on February 9, after just three days, it was a terrible blow. A spokeswoman at the time stated: "Due to an unprecedented demand, McDonald's has had to temporarily remove the breakfast wrap from the menu, to avoid running out of all wider breakfast items."
McDonald's fans north of the border can choose between Buffalo chicken, zesty lime, sweet chili, chicken and bacon, or ranch chicken. As for the difference between snack wraps and McWraps, it appears that McWraps are larger than snack wraps, which are intended mostly for snacking as illustrated by the name.
McDonald's removed salads from national menus in 2020 to help simplify restaurant operations, the company said. In 2022, the chain gave its franchise operators the option of serving pre-made salads but many decided not to, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The restaurant chain has decided to pull the plug on McWraps. Available at multiple price points, McWraps were introduced last summer to attract millennials, who crave fast casual food. Unfortunately, they added complexity to the operations and menu of the restaurant chain, which has been striving for simplicity.
McDonald's says “everyone's favorite sandwich is back” on the menu nationwide. Two years after its debut, McDonald's says both the Smoky BLT Quarter Pounder with Cheese and the Smoky BLT Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese will return.
McDonald's chose to bring back the wrap after claiming fans had begged for the wrap to make a comeback and said there were 22 petitions to bring it back, as well as 5,000 direct messages sent to the company's social media accounts.
And then, two years later, Covid hit, and restaurants facing labor shortages and tangled supply chains slimmed down their menus to focus on their most popular items. McDonald's removed salads from national menus in 2020 to help simplify restaurant operations, the company said.
We're delivering what others took away, with our Grilled Chicken Ranch Wrap, launched in spring of 2023, but always a perfect option for the spring season – just in time for fans who are looking for a lighter, more portable menu option. We're not clowning around with a chicken snack wrap dupe.
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