On average, he says, it takes a restaurant like Popeyes 18 months to put out a new menu, and ramping up production on a given product is a process that takes layers of approvals, paperwork (often, yes, with literal paper), and considerable risk on the part of the company’s decision-makers. (Though the CEO of Popeyes parent company Restaurant Brands International denied this theory in an interview with CNN.)Īccording to Aaron Allen, CEO of the restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates, “quick-service restaurants have long used scarcity in their promotional tool kit,” but in this case, there may be more to the issue than just marketing.
#Popeyes chicken sandwich free
While these may be particularly extreme reactions, in an age of Amazon Prime free one-day shipping and apps that offer the ability to find a car or a date in a matter of minutes, the idea of having to wait more than a month for a coveted item to be replenished may seem like a relic of the past - so much so that some have questioned whether the shortage may, in fact, be a marketing tactic, rather than a genuine lack of supply. In the meantime, the shortage is causing chaos for some employees (many of whom have already reported being pushed to the brink of exhaustion by the frenzy): In Houston, a group of customers pulled a gun on a Popeyes manager after being informed that the sandwich was sold out, and in Tennessee, a man is suing the company for “false advertising” and “deceptive business practices.”
Sad sign in the morning breeze on the window of a “Popeyes” restaurant in Fayetteville this morning /tsA1dTKlOg- Paul Woolverton August 29, 2019 In response to a follow-up question about when it expects the sandwich to be available again, a Popeyes spokesperson said it doesn’t “have a date to share at this time - but are working to get the sandwich back in restaurants as soon as possible!” One Nashville Twitter user, however, posted a photo of a sign reading “no sandwiches till Oct.,” suggesting the chain may not be able to restock ahead of its original timeline. In planning for its launch, Popeyes “aggressively forecasted demand through the end of September,” the company said in a statement, but ultimately it blew through the inventory of chicken filets a month ahead of schedule. It was in development for two years, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the company’s chefs tested various iterations of buttermilk batter, boneless chicken breast filets, sour pickles, and buttered brioche buns. For Chick-fil-A, the spike in demand from the so-called #ChickenWars wasn’t an issue - apart from french fries and soft drinks, sandwiches are the company’s (brioche) bread and butter and have been since the recipe was introduced in 1967.īut for Popeyes, the sandwich is a new menu item, released only two weeks before the supply ran dry. Popeyes announced the shortage on Twitter on August 27, eight days after a tweet from rival Chick-fil-A (and a pointed “.y’all good?” in response) set off a social media melee that pitted chicken sandwich against chicken sandwich and sent customers to the restaurants in droves. Across the nation, Popeyes locations are hung with homemade signs reading “ no chicken sandwiches :(” and “ do apologize we out chicken sandwich” and simply “ SANDWICH SOLD OUT.” The fried chicken chain is very sorry, but it has no more sandwiches to sell.
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