(afagen)
It’s been a bad year for the Colonel. People under 25 don’t know who he is; the KFC franchisees are in a lawsuit with their corporate overseers, Popeyes beat KFC in a taste test and the company is paying college girls to advertise the Double Down on their butts. To make matters worse, KFC announced yesterday that U.S. sales continue to sink.
Unlike its sibling fast food properties Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, which announced quarterly sales increases of 8% and 3% respectively, KFC sales were down 7% in the U.S. last quarter.
“The system is hurting,” one franchisee, who was formerly the company’s COO and currently owns 12 KFCs, told the AP about the situation. “We’ve got to do something to reinvigorate the system.”
Says Yum! Brands CEO:
There is no quick fix… We are absolutely committed to turning KFC around. And we’re seeing slow but steady progress.
Many franchisees continue to blame the company’s recent fixation on grilled chicken and sandwiches for consumers’ waning interest in its menu.
“It’s still Kentucky Fried Chicken,” said the aforementioned franchisee, referencing the restaurant chain’s old name. “Our DNA is fried chicken. That’s what we’re known for. And after the launch, there could have been a little bit better balance between grilled and fried. We were just all one-sided.”
While we’re on the topic of KFC, our readers in Canada who have felt bereft of the salty saltiness that is the Double Down will soon be able to try one for themselves. The bacon-and-cheese sandwich on fried chicken bread is set to make its Canadian debut on Oct. 18.
Yum CEO: No ‘quick fix’ at KFC in US [AP]
KFC’s Double Down coming to Canada [LFPress.com]
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Why would I buy KFC when Winn-Dixie & Publix both have better chicken & aren’t filthy.
I had KFC’s $2 deal on Tuesday (thigh, leg, side, biscuit) and it was awful. I hadn’t had KFC in probably 18 months and I remembered why I hadn’t been back. The breading came right off the chicken, it was bland, and the mashed potatoes tasted very artificial. Church’s is much better.
Lee’s Famous Recipe FTW!
I still eat at KFC. I also get Publix Fried Chicken. And that is up there with KFC in taste. I have not tasted Popeye’s yet because I don’t want to drive 20min to get it.
KFC used to be better. Like, 10 years ago the KFC original recipe was like crack to me. Then the chicken inside the skin started shrinking year by year. It’s nothing but a mouthful of fat now.
I would happily stop in for a failure bowl(tm: Patton Oswalt) every once in a while but the closest KFC to me is like 30-45 minutes away. Plus, buying fried chicken from the grocery store deli counter is about 50% cheaper.
KFC is too expensive, not as easy to eat on the go as say, cheeseburgers, and the quality of their chicken has seriously diminished in the last few years. Never mind that (at my local KFC anyway) you can’t get extra-crispy anymore.
KFC reduced the size of their chicken so you are paying more and getting less.
There is a lot of flower/ breading (more than almost any other place in order to make the pieces seem larger)
They need to add new herbs and spices like in that episode of the boondocks.
I actually rather like KFC. I don’t eat there because, where I live, all KFC’s that I know of are in the ghetto. I don’t go to fast food restaurants in the ghetto. Therefore I don’t eat KFC.
Hell, other than getting what they roast at the supermarket, I don’t know of ANY fried chicken places that aren’t in the ghetto.
Price …
Their “meals” don’t include a drink, yet are more expensive then other places “meals” that include a drink.
They nickle and dime you. Went there with my son, and wanted to get him 2 earns of corn with his meal (that included 2 sides) … but they wanted to upcharge me for the 2nd ear even though they were the same price on the menu.
They don’t have a $1 menu to speak of.
I had a craving one day and went there are order 1 piece of chicken (breast) and 1 biscuit and paid nearly 5 dollars. I was in the drive through and almost refused it when I got to the window (as they had not told me the price when ordering).
I did go there the other day for their $1.99 Leg/Thigh + Biscuit deal but overall they are waaaaay to expensive for what you get.
They need to get back to a price point of 4.99 to 5.99 for their meals and those meals need to include a drink. I am not going to hold my breath as this is the company that brought us the “grilled chicken” that is really not grilled.
They can start by lowering their prices! The last time I went into a KFC was on vacation two summers ago. It was hellaciously expensive, and the quantity of food was absolutely pitiful. At the point, my wife and I decided we wouldn’t bother going to KFC ever again (and we haven’t).
In my city, there are two owned by the same cheap ass owner, who also owns the only other KFC 25 miles away so he offers no specials and no specialty items you might find elsewhere. Everything about how he runs his store screams cheap and screw the customer because they have no choice. Actually we do so I just don’t eat there. The owner used to have four stores but one closed about a year ago because people just stop going to it.
If I’m hungry for chicken, I go to Popeyes. It’s a no-brainer. Popeyes tastes like authentic, flavorful fried chicken and KFC tastes like fast food. And Popeyes’ sides are better too, especially the biscuits.
When I was a kid I loved it when my grandparents and I would go to KFC and bring home that big ass bucket-o-chicken. Over the years the service got terrible, not enough chicken, almost no sides, VERY dirty and this was in Long Island. It’s like the quality degraded over the years and then I experienced Popeye’s. Everyone I’ve been to has had nice hot crispy fresh chicken, fast and friendly workers and very very clean. I haven’t been to a KFC since my grandparents retired about 7 years ago.
I don’t do much fast food anyway, but KFC was one of the better choices.
1. There aren’t any nearby. Or even on the freeway “food next exit” signs.
2. I tend to eat late, and they rarely have my 1st or second choices when I’m there, or it takes a while when they do.
3. Their ever changing menu makes me avoid them. Oh, the extra tender crispy popcorn strips were only last month…
4. Their coupons are complicated or are for things I don’t want (either type or quantity).
I like the chicken when I can get it, and the sides are good, but so are Church’s (usually combined with White Castle).
The other one I mentally avoid is Wendys – they may be better, but they had a high error rate and since they don’t let people “park it” you can be incarcerated in the drive-through for an hour.
Here’s my deal.
1. It’s a 2x a year treat for me.. becuase it’s dripping with grease and I eat pretty healthy.
2. Every time I got there the stores seem dirtier than before.
3. I go there 1x a year if that.. becuase every time I order something.. I drive 10min to get back home (That’s the closest one to my house) and am missing something. I filled out an online coment card about how I didn’t want to go back because after 20 min my chicken’d be cold then.. and got no repsonse at all.
Tiny little twig legs and itsy bitsy wings. Tasted finchy.
I think the shrink ray got their birds.
That and the grilled chicken is horrendous (beef flavorings??? WTF?!). My guess is this is death by focus group + marketing MBA’s.
1. After waiting in line to get to the order speaker, I am told they are “out of chicken”. WTH?!?
2. After waiting in line to get to the order speaker, taking my order, and taking my money, I am told to pull up because they are frying more chicken.
3. On the rare occasion I have actually been able to purchase KFC chicken in the past two years it has been as if the chicken flesh was in a tornado and twisted and knotted into an unpleasant texture.
That said though, I did have to try the double-down and the very first one I tried was heavenly. A couple of weeks later I tried another and it was horrible.
S. Truett Cathy is still alive & kickin’. I don’t know if Chick-fil-a adds sugar to their chicken, but I second “Chick-fil-a all the way”!
I’ll be damned. Someone told me he was gone. I actually met the man when he spoke at the college Bible study I was going to at the time (since I am an atheist and I was a vegetarian for a long time, you can guess how much that changed my life…).
S. Truett Cathy is still alive & kickin’. I don’t know if Chick-fil-a adds sugar to their chicken, but I second “Chick-fil-a all the way”!
Bojangles is my poison of choice although I have none available to me right now. Perhaps the chicken pieces shrunk due to all the PETA nonsense about doped up birds, which is probably true but it’s true about all our food. I was shocked to find out they don’t offer extra crispy anymore, just original and grilled.
Wow KFC must be getting worse over time. I haven’t had it in a few years because there isn’t one nearby. Growing up I always liked it though. Original, not extra crispy. They had good macaroni salad as well, though I hear they don’t have that anymore.
I prefer Church’s and it’s much cheaper… or I’ll splurge and buy Chicken Tenders at Chicken Express or Golden Chick
maybe if they would get my order correct…. “yes, an eight piece of grilled chicken..” I get home and open the bucket (my first mistake…i waited until I got home) to discover fried original and not the juicy grilled chicken my mouth was set to bite into. no kfc no…you’ll never do this to me again.
Taco Bell and KFC franchises, owned by different people, are within a mile of my workplace. The Taco Bell was recently renovated, lots of work put into it. The service is still crap but you can’t really expect too much. I can go there and get in and out fairly quickly though as long as I’m not asking for something complicated.
The KFC down the street hasn’t been touched in 20 years. The staff are rude, stupid, lackadaisical, and unpleasant. The food is always, always awful and takes forever to receive. The restaurant looks as if it hasn’t had a hard cleaning since Nixon was in office. The franchisee of that location is obviously doing the bare minimum to get by…seems like KFC is the bastard child of the Yum! brand fast food joints right now.
They need to do what Pizza Hut has done, in part. Simplify the menu, focus on far fewer products (chicken. biscuits. a few sides. that’s it!), and make them better. Invest in the restaurants.
10 years ago, “Kentucky Fried Chicken” (not this new hip “KFC”) was awesome. The quality of the food was excellent.. It used to be a place that we would go to for birthday parties because it was a rare treat – expensive but delicious.
Now, I feel like the place is exclusively out to put me in an early grave. It’s still a rare thing (3 times a year) that I eat there, but mostly because the food is sooo terrible. I usually get ill after eating, and then beat myself up for deciding to go there in the first place.
I think things took a turn for the worse during that period 6 or 7 years ago where they eliminated all the transfat from their menu – Counter-intuitively, Something changed with the recipe where the food actually became LESS healthy for you.
I remember liking KFC as a kid (maybe 20 years ago) and looking forward to Mom or Dad bringing it home for dinner, but not anymore.
First, Popeyes started moving into my old town and their sides and spicy chicken just did it for me in a way KFC’s never could.
I moved to a new town five years ago without a Popeyes, so figured I’d give KFC a shot again. Their “buffalo” sauce literally smelled like the inside of a dumpster (both my roommates agreed it made our apartment smell like garbage) and I can’t imagine it tasted much better. Ever since, I feel nauseous just thinking about trying them again.
Since then, Bojangles has moved in (I like their chicken, though I’d still prefer a Popeyes) and people want to tear down the KFC and build a gas station there instead. I won’t shed any tears when they’re gone.
…because KFC is expensive, the pieces are small, their sides are terrible, and the store is often dirty? That about cover it?
I quit eating there after the food made me sick…twice. Once I could think was a fluke, or not them, but twice means no going back.
Anyway, I’m trying not to eat that stuff anymore.
The last couple of times I went there the food was lackluster at best and they also seem to have particularly unenthusiastic workers. Can’t entirely fault them for their enthusiasm level, but its even worse than most of the other fast food places. One of the times I tried the double down and that managed to be too salty even for me. They need to go back to the basics and try to get their food not to taste like it has sat around for 4 hours.
Popeyes has the better recipe. It’s as simple as that.
Their chicken looks lighter in color, is crispier and has more flavor while on the other hand KFC’s chicken generally looks darker in color and seems to hold onto a lot more grease.
I will also add that of every Popeye’s franchise I’ve ever been to the chicken generally seems a bit hotter and a lot fresher.. not so much for KFC.
It’s fattening, disgusting crap, and I refuse to eat it, even if it was free.
I can give you one name why KFC doesn’t do well here in Puget Sound region…….EZELL’S (btw one of the co-founders is my neighbour here in Seward Park.)
Why was this posted today instead of on Tuesday? After all, it’s the 6 month celebration of
4/12
DOUBLE DOWN EVERY DAY
Only went there for 2 reasons:
1) the Twister wrap, which they discontinued
2) gizzards, which I get a craving for once in every 10 years.
Because ordering and waiting for food at KFC feels like hanging out at a bus station. The stores tend to be dingy, crowded and old, lots of trashy people will awful tattoos and baby strollers, etc.
Because the last time I tried to order from KFC, it was a farce that ended with my driving off because the employee at the drive-through either couldn’t or wouldn’t understand me. All I wanted was the two piece grilled meal. That’s what I said when the employee asked if she could help me. “I’d like the two piece grilled meal and a drink.” She asked, “Original or extra crispy?” It devolved from there until finally she confirmed “my” order: 2 pieces of grilled chicken, nothing else.
Every time I go in there either the prices have been raised or the portion sizes cut. The last time I went it was a combination of the 2 and I just had enough. I was getting a lot less for a good bit more and I swore I’d never go back to KFC.
Prices too high, quality too low.
The last time I went to KFC in Danvers, MA, they were charging, with sales tax, $3.50 for an extra side of cole slaw or potatoes. That is $7.00 more added to the feature meal price.
The sides were only half full. I took everything out of the bag to check it because it is a 20 minute drive home and I don’t trust them. I tapped the sides on the counter and took the covers off, only half full and made the counter person fill them up. Got a real dirty look from her.
The chicken was old and cold. Take the coating off and find the chicken hard and browned with age. The wings, under the coating, had no editable meat at all.
KFC is done with me. Also, there wasn’t a native English speaker in the place.
No KFC because Popeyes does taste better. No KFC because the employees at my local KFC/A&W are rude SOBs who don’t deserve my business. No KFC because the local KFC is filthy. No KFC because I don’t like potato wedges. No KFC because the local one waters down the Pepsi. This one store makes the whole chain look bad.
But it has to be said I don’t eat a lot of fried chicken anyway. But when I do go, it’s not to KFC. Popeyes is actually quite a distance away but worth it because the chicken is better.
No, I go to El Pollo Loco when I want chicken. It tastes a whole lot better and it’s not as greasy.
Coincidence? Just got KFC coupons in the mail yesterday. The booklet says “Celebrating 70 Years” on the front.
16 piece family meal? $29.99 with coupon.
Me cooking chicken at home that isn’t soaked in grease, with home made cole slaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and maybe some cooked veggies? 1/2 the cost and much healthier.
The prices are just too high for the quality of the food you get. And unfortunately, KFC is our only chicken choice – no Chik-fil-a, Church’s, or Popeye’s. So I make my own.
I stopped going to KFC a few years ago for reasons listed here in other comments. Whenever I went in I had to wait for my order to be cooked. I was always given something to try and make up for the wait but a free family dessert wasn’t worth my 20 minutes in the store.
More recently, the local supermarkets (ShopRite and Acme) have been selling fried chicken in their stores. It’s good and the meal deal comes with fried potatoes (think extra thick steak fries with the skin on) and honey rolls. It’s good. To top it off, on Monday nights they have a sale which gets you 8 pieces of chicken, 4 rolls and a ton o fries (not literally) for $7.99. Great Deal.
Prices, Prices, Prices. KFC is damn expensive.
KFC commits FRAUD on most of the country & they wonder why no one buys their Grease? They are DUMBER than I gave them credit for.
I don’t like it because it doesn’t taste very good. I like Popeyes, but hadn’t had it for years until I bought some earlier this year.
The local restaurant’s staff is really creepy, rude, and, rude.
Also they play a local religious radio station that’s entire message is “you’re a sinner”.
Just let me eat my chicken and double service of mashed potatoes and gravy.
It could be that KFC just doesn’t taste as good as… well any other place is better. I getter fried chicken at my supermarket. I prefer Popeye’s or Bojangle’s over KFC any day of the week.
The big turn off for me is the after taste and the texture. They tell me they never freeze it, but texture reminds me of chicken I’ve frozen. The after taste, to me, says it’s less about the 11 herbs and spices and more about the chemicals.
Honestly, I’ve eaten at KFC maybe 4 times in the last 5 years, and one of those was with a free Oprah coupon. Still wasn’t worth it.
If you want to turn your sales around, make better food cheaper. Look at McD’s. I stopped eating there for a decade (last time was the first time they offered 0.50 (or was it 0.25) hamburgers. I was halfway through eating one when I realized I couldn’t taste any meat. I wasn’t able to finish it and stopped eating there altogether. Well, I still won’t eat their hamburger (BK or Wendy’s FTW) but McD’s breakfast is awesome now, and they’ve redesigned their places, and the people act like it’s not the last place in the world they would like to be (hey, a bad economy makes people appriciate their jobs more, I guess).
Their prices have gone up, their portions have gone down, and while I prefer their chicken, I don’t prefer it so much over Church’s or Popeye’s that I won’t go where it’s much cheaper.
Because they stopped selling boneless chicken wings..
..No Teriyaki flavored goodness..