• McDonald's brought back the McRib for a national farewell tour in the fall of 2022. 
• The McRib has had at least three other farewell tours and has been on and off menus since 1981.
• It's returned to menus every year since 2023 and is back in select cities on October 27.

When bidding fans a final goodbye, the McRib appears to be taking cues from rock bands like The Who and KISS. The bands are known for farewell tours that didn't stick. The iconic McDonald's sandwich is also pulling a fast one with fans. 

In 2022, McDonald's said the barbecue-slathered boneless pork hoagie would say goodbye to fans in an event billed as the McRib's farewell tour. But the McRib returned to select McDonald's locations in November 2023, and has made similar returns every year since. In fact, the chain announced it will release the McRib again in October in select cities.

For 45 years, the McRib sandwich has been popping up randomly on the McDonald's menu. 

Here's a look at the history of the sandwich. 

Mary Meisenzahl and Nancy Luna contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• Sweetgreen just rolled out a new incentive and compensation plan for restaurant managers.
• A higher base salary and new revenue-share bonus could push top performers above $200,000.
• "As we approach 300 restaurants, we're betting big on our Head Coaches," CEO Jonathan Neman said.

Sweetgreen restaurant managers are about to see some more sweet green.

The salad bowl chain said Tuesday it is rolling out a new compensation and incentive plan for the new year that would raise annual pay for managers of high-performing locations to more than $200,000.

"This sets Sweetgreen up to be in the top tier of restaurants for total compensation for general managers," chief operating officer Jason Cochran told Business Insider. "Our ability to be able to attract, retain, and also inspire many of our internal team members to want to be head coaches — I think it's going to be meaningful for many years to come."

Managers need to have at least three years on the job to be eligible for the highest pay bands, and a new revenue-share bonus will directly reward leaders when their location beats it sales goals, the company said. Managers may also receive shares of Sweetgreen stock based on their performance.

Cochran said the typical tenure of restaurant managers ranges from three months to 10 years, and that store teams consist of about 25 to 50 employees.

"One of the shift leads was telling me they heard the news and how excited they were for their career at Sweetgreen," he said. "She's been with us six years."

The company also said the changes at the top are part of a larger push to improve talent retention and training within the chain.

"Great leaders build great teams, and great teams build a great business. As we approach 300 restaurants, we're betting big on our Head Coaches," co-founder and CEO Jonathan Nemen said in a statement. "The restaurant industry has always been one of the great engines of opportunity, and we want to make that real for thousands of people."

• One of soccer's biggest stars is in hot water in China over joking about Chairman Mao Zedong.
• Kylian Mbappé referred to Mao as a "Chinese dictator" during a podcast talk about his favorite memes.
• Two Chinese brands ended deals with Mbappé, while shares in shoemaker On, which sponsors him, fell.

Chinese brands are cutting ties with Kylian Mbappé, one of the world's biggest soccer stars, after he joked about Mao Zedong on a podcast.

Mbappé, who plays for Real Madrid and captains the French national team, has been nicknamed "The Dictator" for his confidence and influence over the teams he plays for. The nickname has spawned countless memes, many of which compare him to historical leaders, including Mao.

The controversy was sparked by a clip circulating on social media from an interview with "The Bridge," a French podcast co-hosted by one of Mbappé's teammates.

In it, Mbappé said the meme that made him laugh the most was one where his face was superimposed onto that of "some guy — I think he's a Chinese dictator." The video then cuts to an image of Mao with Mbappé's face.

While millions died under Mao's leadership, he is still revered by the Chinese Communist Party for his role as the founding father of modern China. Jokes about him remain a social taboo in China and are considered disrespectful.

Dongpeng, a drinks company whose ads and packaging feature Mbappé, announced on Tuesday that it would no longer work with him.

"Our company firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for actions that hurt national feelings," it said in a statement. "Effective immediately, we are ending all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé."

Mengniu, the country's largest dairy producer, also released a similar statement: "Effective immediately, our company is ending all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé. Mengniu firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."

Soon after it was posted, Dongpeng's statement became the top-trending topic on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

Mbappé apologized in a statement on Tuesday morning, calling the comment "ill-judged."

"I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world," he said in the statement, which was posted in English, French, and Mandarin.

"I apologize to everyone my words have upset. This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry."

Mbappé is one of soccer's biggest stars. On Monday, he came second in voting for the prestigious Ballon d'Or and was the top scorer at this summer's World Cup.

In 2017, while still a teenager, he commanded a transfer fee of over $210 million, and he has since become one of the most marketable athletes in global sports.

In September, he became the face of Swiss shoemaker On's expanding soccer business, leaving behind a long-term deal as one of Nike's top ambassadors. On's share price was down more than 4% in early trading on Tuesday.

On top of that deal, Mbappé is the face of EA Sports' hugely popular FC game series, and has endorsement deals with brands like Swiss watchmaker Hublot and Oakley.

Soon after Dongpeng and Mengnui's statements, EFE Noticias, a Spanish news agency, reported that Chinese state TV has suspended broadcasts of La Liga — the top division of Spanish football where Mbappé plies his trade.

"We convey our respect to China, its institutions, and its people, and we deeply value the support of the millions of fans who follow us each week," La Liga said in a Tuesday X post, adding that it was working with partners in China to address the situation.

Pre-orders open Wednesday for the iMac from $1,499 and the 14-inch MacBook Pro from $1,999, with deliveries starting Nov. 6

• Major brands put a lot of care into choosing a defining color — for Target it's Pantone 186.
• But a shade that works in one context might not suit all situations.
• Target told BI it adopted a shade called "Cherry Stain" for when the bullseye red is a bit hot.

Target takes its colors very seriously.

The retailer's iconic red, also known as Pantone 186, is a vibrant, highly saturated shade that makes its bullseye logo stand out in a crowd. It's a color that catches the eye on subway platforms and suburban shopping centers alike.

A new employee-only line of apparel, designed in collaboration with Isaac Mizrahi, is dubbed Collection 186. And two decades ago, Target bought all the ad space in an issue of The New Yorker and asked the magazine's illustrators to work only in black, white, and red.

But when Target remodeled its SoHo location in New York last year, using the trademark red for nearly every element of the store's entrance proved to be a bit much.

"It was just a little too overpowering, so our design team brought in this color that we're now calling Cherry Stain to kind of help balance out all of the red," Target's chief brand officer Michelle Mesenburg told Business Insider during an exclusive store tour last week. "It has now become part of our IP color palette at Target."

While the new Cherry Stain color appears on several fixtures in the SoHo store, it is more prominently seen as the official shade of the newly launched Beauty Studio department, which the retailer is rolling out in stores this year.

It's a calmer, more inviting hue that both complements the primary red and serves as an alternative when the bullseye shade might come off a bit too hot.

The company is now using the shade in more contexts, including some Target logos that now appear as a combination of the Pantone 186 and the new Cherry Stain, rather than the traditional red and white.

"It's a fresh chapter," Mesenburg said. "We're pulling elements of what we're learning here [in SoHo]. It may not translate exactly one-for-one, but the influence is coming into the full chain."

• Talon Krebs earns six figures as a TikTok Shop affiliate, posting up to 30 videos a day.
• He says anyone can get started with just a couple hundred bucks.
• Effective TikTok videos need a strong hook to give people a reason to stop scrolling.

Talon Krebs works full time as a TikTok Shop affiliate, promoting products on the app and earning a commission when shoppers buy through his links.

The gig earned the 23-year-old six figures last year, according to a 1099 form reviewed by Business Insider.

"As far as startup cost, TikTok Shop has to be one of the most profitable business models I've ever seen," he told BI.

Krebs said beginners can get started with a phone, a few products, and an understanding of what makes people stop scrolling. He shares three steps to turn TikTok videos into a source of income.

1. Build an account and meet TikTok Shop's eligibility requirements

Anyone can open a TikTok account, but affiliates need an established following to join TikTok Shop.

TikTok offers multiple routes into its affiliate program, Krebs explained. Its pilot program requires 1,000 followers but limits participants to a handful of posts a week, while the main program, which gives affiliates more flexibility, requires at least 5,000 followers.

Krebs already had about 24,000 followers on a personal account when he got started. He said he built the audience by posting about sports, current events, and other subjects he liked: "I was just posting stuff I was interested in."

2. Start with products you already own or would buy anyway

Krebs said he spent $100 to $200 on a handful of products when he first started. He chose items he needed anyway, like hoodies.

Affiliates can search TikTok's product marketplace for brands and products to promote. Krebs said they don't need a direct relationship with a brand to start making videos, though successful affiliates may eventually negotiate higher commissions or paid content deals.

For someone trying to keep costs close to zero, Krebs recommends looking around the house first. If an item you already own is listed on TikTok Shop, you can create a video about it rather than buying something new specifically to promote.

He also joined Media Labs, a community for affiliates that offered video feedback and weekly calls. He paid the $1,500 fee in six $250 monthly installments, putting his initial outlay — including products and his first community payment — at about $450.

Skip the community, use products you already own, and film with a phone and free editing tools, and Krebs said you could get started for essentially nothing.

3. Make videos that give people a reason to stop scrolling

A TikTok Shop video still has to work as a TikTok video. Krebs said the opening seconds matter most: The hook should get a viewer's attention, identify a pain point, or create enough curiosity to keep them watching.

In one of his most successful videos about a digital business card, he opens with: "Paper business cards are officially a thing of the past." The statement created some controversy, he said, but it got viewers' attention before he explained the product and how he used it as an entrepreneur.

Krebs tries to keep most videos between 30 and 50 seconds, though he said the right length depends on the product. Some products need more explanation, while others can be shown in a 10-second video.

He thinks of each video as a loop: The hook opens it, the middle explains or demonstrates the product, and the call to action closes it. Affiliates can tag a product directly in the video, allowing viewers to tap the orange shopping-cart icon, view the listing, and ultimately make a purchase.

• Instacart is shuttering its team focused on smart shopping carts.
• The company will wind down its Caper cart division by the second quarter of 2027, it said Monday.
• The smart shopping carts were "the future of grocery shopping," Instacart's former CEO said in 2024.

Instacart is carting away a technology it once said would play a key role in shopping.

The grocery delivery company will wind down the team that develops its Caper smart shopping carts, it said on Monday. The move, approved by Instacart's board of directors, will be completed by the second quarter of 2027.

A wind-down will cost the company between $55 million and $80 million, including the costs of terminating some employees and contracts, it said in a filing with the SEC. Instacart will reinvest savings from the decision into "strategic growth initiatives."

Caper carts were one of the most visible of Instacart's retail technology efforts. The company began as a delivery-focused startup in 2012, but diversified into selling technology to retailers over the last several years.

Equipped with cameras and sensors, Caper carts could weigh fruit, track what customers placed inside or removed from them, apply coupons, and accept payments when customers were done shopping. Instacart also saw an opportunity to serve users tailored ads on the carts' screens.

In early 2024, Instacart said it planned to roll out "thousands" of the Caper carts to stores. Then-CEO Fidji Simo said: "We really believe that it's going to be the future of grocery shopping."

Amazon, which makes a similar smart shopping cart, said at the start of 2026 that it planned to start using a new version at Whole Foods Market stores.

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• The FTC and 20 US states are suing Dollar General over its pricing practices.
• A complaint filed Monday alleges the company repeatedly mislabeled products and overcharged customers.
• Dollar General said it will defend the lawsuit while remaining open to discussing a resolution.

Dollar General is facing fresh federal scrutiny over its pricing practices.

The US Federal Trade Commission said Monday it has filed a lawsuit, along with 20 states, accusing the discount retailer of deceptive pricing on its shelves, price tags, and advertisements.

"Dollar General has, for years, repeatedly mislabeled prices, overcharged consumers and failed to correct the issue despite extensive corporate knowledge of the problem," the FTC said in a statement.

The company operates more than 21,000 US stores and typically serves customers in more rural and low-income areas of the country.

The filings say Dollar General has received tens of thousands of complaints from shoppers who said they did not receive an advertised price and that the company failed to adequately address the problem.

As a result, Dollar General received millions of dollars from overcharging customers, the FTC alleged.

In a statement, Dollar General said it will defend the lawsuit while remaining open to discussing a resolution.

"The lawsuit filed today by the Federal Trade Commission and several States suggests that we have abandoned our mission and willfully disregarded the affordability needs of our customers. Nothing could be further from the truth," the statement said.

Dollar General said its goal is accuracy between shelf and register prices. When discrepancies occur, store teams are expected to make things right for customers.

The company said it cooperated with the investigation since February, producing documents, data, and testimony. The FTC and the company had exchanged potential remedies when the lawsuit was filed, the company said.

The action comes less than two weeks after New York Attorney General Letitia James reached a settlement of nearly $1.9 million in food and personal items as a civil penalty for overcharging shoppers in the state. New York did not join the FTC's complaint.

US consumers have been particularly worried about fairness in retail pricing as more stores introduce digital price tags. Both Walmart and Target have issued public statements promising price transparency and consistency online and at the register. Home Depot recently did the same.

The 8.5-inch tablet runs on the A20 Pro chip and is water resistant; pre-orders open Wednesday and orders arrive Nov. 6

The "Shop the Look" feature pairs items by team and style, and views of recommended products rose 10% after rollout

• The holiday shopping season keeps starting earlier and earlier.
• Target has struggled in recent years to keep the momentum going to the end.
• This year's strategy leans harder into the micro-season trend, with a big push in the home stretch.

The holiday shopping season keeps creeping earlier on the calendar, and that head start can come at the expense of the final stretch.

After weeks of crowds, big-box stores in the week before Christmas can be left with picked-over shelves. This year, as part of CEO Michael Fiddelke's turnaround effort, Target is shifting from a marathon mentality to a series of sprints intended to help the retailer finish strong.

Target's US stores will kick off the holiday season with a major reset in the first week of November, followed by another overhaul in the first week of December after Black Friday.

But the team isn't stopping there.

For the home stretch, Target is picking up the pace with a new micro-season intended to carry the energy through the final 10 days before Christmas.

"Decorating your home is done, then you start going to gift-giving," Target's chief merchandising officer Cara Sylvester told reporters at a preview event in New York last week. "The entire back of the store will be transformed into what we're calling Christmas Morning Magic."

That means this year, instead of seeing leftover string lights and stockings in the seasonal section, Sylvester said the zone will be flooded with fresh stocking stuffers priced from $3 to $20.

Target is, of course, not the only retailer to struggle with late-season momentum that can leave last-minute shoppers in the lurch, but Fiddelke has focused on faster cadence to win back shoppers.

"The holiday season is such a culmination of what the team has been hard at work on all year," he said at the briefing. "It's a hectic time of year."

Target's chief brand officer Michelle Mesenburg told Business Insider that the company is taking a lot of cues from its recently revamped concept store in New York's SoHo shopping district.

Starting early and turning items over more quickly has been a successful strategy at the SoHo store, she said, as well as a flexible approach to fixtures that keep the store looking fresh through several episodes of a longer season. Now the company is looking to put that philosophy into practice nationwide this holiday.

• Home Depot's CIO says digital shelf labels won't mean different prices for different shoppers.
• The retailer sees the tags as a way to show delivery timing and help pick online orders.
• It comes as consumers and lawmakers worry about electronic shelves tying in dynamic pricing.

Buying a screwdriver at Home Depot?

Well, you and your next-door neighbor should be paying the same price for the same product on the same day.

Angie Brown, the home improvement retailer's executive vice president and chief information officer, told Business Insider that it's exploring a larger rollout of its electronic shelf labels, or ESLs — the small digital placards that large retailers have been using to replace paper price tags.

When asked if those wireless-updatable tags could introduce dynamic pricing, Brown responded, "Absolutely not."

Instead, The Home Depot uses those tags to accurately inform customers when their store expects the next delivery of a specific product, Brown said.

"We love being able to show you on the sign, 'You can get this as soon as the next day,'" she said. "And we want that to be right."

Why those little shelf electronic labels have caused so much worry

Several major brands — including Walmart, Kroger, Best Buy, and Whole Foods — have rolled out electronic shelf labels in their stores.

Consumers have scrutinized the rollout amid fears that stores could quickly raise prices during busy shopping periods or use customer data to show different prices to separate shoppers.

Some state lawmakers have responded to that anxiety, too. New Jersey passed a yearlong moratorium on new implementation of the tech. Maryland passed legislation requiring grocery stores to keep electronically displayed prices unchanged for a full business day.

Concerns have prompted retailers to get ahead of dynamic pricing concerns: Walmart's CEO, John Furner, for example, wrote a memo in September to customers and employees, explicitly stating that the technology wouldn't be used to adjust prices.

"We don't set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won't," he wrote. "We price the product, not the person."

Target also shared a similar statement this month, saying that the company "does not use personal information to raise prices."

Electronic signs in Home Depot

Home Depot has been testing the technology for years. In its 2020 annual report, the retailer said it had initially used electronic shelf-label capabilities in the appliances section before trying them in additional merchandising departments.

Brown said Home Depot sees the labels as a tool for store operations, not a new pricing strategy.

As stores increasingly double as fulfillment hubs for delivery workers and pickup orders, she said, ESLs can light up to help gig workers and employees quickly locate a product — an update that Walmart rolled out in its stores earlier this month.

She also said the company is not using the technology in its garden department.

There are two important caveats.

First, Home Depot sells several commodities, such as building materials and garden goods. Brown said the ESLs will reflect the individual commodity markets.

Second, Home Depot's Pro customers can receive bulk discounts when they cross purchasing thresholds. Brown said those prices are set by transparent rules, not by a shopper's personal data.

Still, for everyone else walking through a Home Depot aisle, she said, the promise is simpler: The price one customer sees should be the same price another customer sees.

"Those are the use cases we're interested in, not in changing price more often because we have electronic shelf labels," she said. "We've never talked about changing our pricing strategy if we were to roll out ESLs."

• When a member of Gen Z smells good, you can probably thank Sol de Janeiro.
• I'm a millennial and new to the brand, so I tried six of its popular fragrances.
• The best scent, in my opinion, is also one of the brand's most underrated.

Millennials had Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. Gen Z has Sol de Janeiro.

The body, hair, and fragrance brand, founded in 2015, has become a major player in the industry. A 2025 fiscal year report from L'Occitane Group, Sol de Janeiro's parent company, said the brand accounted for 31.6% of the group's sales. The report also described Sol de Janeiro as Sephora North America's No. 1 beauty brand and the No. 1 fragrance brand on Amazon US at the time.

Two Sol de Janeiro products have led that charge. First, millennials embraced the $48 Brazilian Bum Bum Cream after it launched in 2015, turning it into a skincare staple.

Tweens and teens have now become obsessed with the $39 Cheirosa perfume mists, the first of which debuted in 2020. The sprays have become a staple of young people's shopping hauls, holiday wish lists, and what's-in-my-bag videos.

The brand confirmed to Business Insider that its three most popular scents are Cheirosa 62, 40, and 68.

I'm a big fragrance fan myself, but I had yet to try the perfume mists. So I went to Ulta Beauty, purchased a $49 sample set of six Sol de Janeiro scents, and tested them on my skin.

Considering each mist's scent, staying power, wearability, and personal preference, here's how I'd rank them from worst to best.

• Being a mom can be challenging and expensive.
• Some have turned to apps like Uber and Lyft to make extra money — or as their main source of income.
• Fill out our survey if you're a mom who does gig work.

Uber and Lyft often talk about the flexibility of working as a driver on their apps.

That aspect of the gig has attracted moms, among other people who often want to earn money outside a 9-to-5 schedule. The job can be appealing to mothers who need to juggle school drop-offs, childcare, and other obligations of parenting.

Others, including single moms, say they feel stuck in ride-hailing work and end up having to drive for Uber or Lyft at set times anyway, depending on when the most passengers need rides.

With costs like childcare and college rising, Uber and Lyft offer some moms a way to make extra money — if they can earn enough on the apps and keep costs like gas and car maintenance under control.

Business Insider wants to speak with moms who drive for Uber, Lyft, or other ride-hailing apps. We want to hear about how you combine the gig with taking care of your kids, including both what's working and what isn't. Please fill out the survey below.

Looters ravaged a storied commercial avenue in France’s second-largest city. Its merchants fear that more unrest could follow.

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• Uber is giving its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise work tool.
• ChatGPT Work can "prepare meeting briefs," among other tasks, OpenAI said.
• Uber is rolling out the tool after laying off thousands of workers last month.

Uber is giving all of its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise tool weeks after laying off thousands.

About 30,000 employees at the ride-hailing service's offices will have access to ChatGPT Work, the two companies said on Thursday.

The tool will connect with other programs that Uber employees use, such as Slack and Gmail, to "research information, prepare meeting briefs, create presentations, analyze data and complete workflows across applications," a statement said.

"As AI transforms how we work, we want to give everyone the tools to innovate, solve problems and help shape Uber's future," Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said. Uber initially tested the tool among a group of 1,000 employees.

The rollout comes the month after Uber laid off about 10% of its corporate workforce, or about 3,300 people. The company made the job cuts to reduce management layers and reduce the number of small teams, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the time. It didn't cite AI in its announcement.

Some laid-off employees told Business Insider that AI was doing significant parts of their jobs, from answering their questions in Slack to crafting replies to messages from riders and drivers.

Uber cited AI as a reason for an earlier round of layoffs in July, which targeted Uber's customer service employees.

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U.S. online orders carried an average shipping delay of 92 days this week, and walk-in stock is limited in many countries

The FDA cited deviations from current good manufacturing practice requirements and classified the recall as Class II

• Restaurants are buying fewer paper cups and takeout containers.
• Companies making the goods say their North American sales declined in results released this year.
• It's the latest sign that diners are eating out less.

Even the humble disposable coffee cup suggests that diners are eating out less at restaurants.

Companies that sell paper cups, plates, delivery containers, and similar packaging to restaurants say that they're seeing less demand from US businesses.

Essity, a Swedish company that sells paper towels and cleaning supplies to businesses, including restaurants, said on Thursday that the dining pullback in the US was affecting sales. The company's sales volumes and prices in the US fell during its third quarter, it said.

"Consumers are not going out to restaurants as much as they do in Europe," CEO Ulrika Kolsrud told Reuters on Thursday.

Finland-based Huhtamaki Oyj, which makes disposable cups and takeout containers for fast-food restaurants, said that second-quarter sales in North America decreased.

Analysts at Jefferies wrote that results in the region, which accounts for about one-third of Huhtamaki Oyj's sales, will likely be hurt by lower consumer spending at fast-food chains in the US.

Higher prices at some chains, and many consumers still working from home, "have impacted sales volumes, and ultimately packaging demand," the analysts wrote earlier this month.

With wages stagnant and the lingering effects of inflation, many diners are eating out less. Those who are still spending tend to look for good deals — a trend that has tested value menus at fast-food chains like McDonald's and benefited others, such as Chili's, which offered deals that got consumers ordering.

That doesn't necessarily mean Americans have stopped spending on restaurant food altogether. Many diners are still willing to pay for food delivery, a trend that has bolstered results at DoorDash and Uber.

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Ahead of the midterms, Natasha Sarin and Catherine Rampell unpack the state of the economy — and how much responsibility the president bears for it.

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