Here's Why Arby's Got Rid Of Its Sliced Ham

For years, Arby's has proudly touted its carnivore-centric slogan, "We have the meats," but that doesn't mean they won't occasionally kick a meat to the curb if they feel it's time to part ways. During the summer of 2021, the fast food chain best known for its roast beef said goodbye to five of its menu items, including the ham slider, a basic, snack-size ham sandwich topped with a slice of cheese. Subsequently, Arby's pulled ham from their menu entirely, disappointing ham aficionados everywhere and leading to plenty of jokes about the chain's failure to fulfill its catchphrase.

Of course, whenever a fast food item disappears, most people can guess the reason was lackluster sales, and for Arby's ham, this was indeed the case. While meat eaters may not usually cherish ham to the extent that they do bacon, Arby's booting ham from its menu led to ripple effects for the purveyor of beef, pork, and poultry.

Arby's ham slider wasn't the restaurant's only item containing ham; the chicken cordon bleu and Italian sub also became obsolete when the chain pulled the meat from menus. At the time, customers took to social media to express their disapproval, with some Redditors saying the chain's decision to nix ham would cause them to sever ties with Arby's for good. Others simply pleaded with the franchise to bring back the ham slider. On June 16, 2021, one dedicated ham-slider fan even launched a petition through Change.org to persuade Arby's to bring back the beloved sandwich, but the restaurant was not swayed.

Currently, Arby's offers two different flavors of chicken and two varieties of roast beef in its slider lineup, but ham is still conspicuously absent. Meanwhile, the ham-adoring masses still anxiously wait to see if the self-proclaimed possessor of meats and wizard of meat craft will someday offer ham once more.