It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Not even Furby Frenzy could compare with the challenge I faced: find a free Big Mac in York. Up and down the country it's been the same story: short tempers and even shorter supplies since McDonald's started its controversial buy one, get one free offer for its 25th birthday celebrations.

Dan tucks into his burgers.

Big Macs have been selling out all over. There have been stories of traffic chaos at drive-throughs and overwhelming queues at restaurants.

Getting a Big Mac offer at any of York's four restaurants was going to be a tall order, but I decided to give it my best shot.

When I arrived at York's MacArthurGlen outlet, things at first looked promising.

There were only five people in the queue, but all had ordered Big Macs and were being kept waiting amid dark mutterings of the "I thought this was fast food" variety.

Staff looked flustered as they handed over the burgers and even at this relatively quiet outlet, at only 11.15am, there were hints of the shortage.

At Colton, on the A64 towards Leeds, there were similar scenes. Almost everyone ordering food was ordering Big Macs and the staff admitted that they "were one of the few stores in the country that hadn't run out" of the burgers.

Still, things weren't looking too bad - this reporter had scored twice on the free offer front.

But as lunchtime approached, appetites sharpened and the Big Mac crisis deepened. At the McDonald's on Clifton Moor there was a 14-car queue in the drive-through and the queue inside the store reached to the door.

The Big Macs had run out, but that didn't stop customers from trying to order them, only to end up disgruntled by both the long queues and the double disappointment of not getting their cheap nosh.

At the McDonald's in Blake Street, York, there were also big queues and again no Big Macs by lunchtime.

Hungry hopefuls approached the doors to find signs explaining the situation were placed, only to trudge away empty-bellied without entering the store.

The sign read: "Due to the massive interest in the Big Mac promotion, we are currently unable to sell Big Macs. This is due to a supply problem. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Once supplies have been replenished we will resume normal operations."

One customer was heard to sigh: "How could they not expect this to happen, it is ridiculous.

"Why bother having an offer if they don't have enough burgers ?"

Slightly guiltily, I crept away with the booty I had gathered earlier: four burgers for the price of two.

In my experience you can get the Big Macs - but for brunch, not lunch.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.