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Free Chicken Freakout Day 2: KFC RUNNING OUT of Stock
By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2009
Modified May 7, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2009
Modified May 7, 2009
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If the demand for the free grilled chicken combo meal continues at its current pace, KFC could run out of chicken by Saturday. An anonymous source explains why to Business Insider: "The stores cannot cook the product fast enough, sales were up 25-35% BEFORE this. A franchisee today told me KFC is projected to strip their entire supply chain of bird by Saturday. I am not making that up. They are scrambling to source more chicken before Sunday. By Sunday, because it's Mothers Day, one of their busiest days of the year. It's possible they could be out of chicken on Mothers Day."
Well that screws our Mother's Day plans. But perhaps it's for the best, as lines outside KFC have reportedly stretched out the door and down the block at some Manhattan locations. The Daily News swung by the KFC that was pandemonium yesterday, and talks to free lunch lovers like Julio Layana, 36, who reveals the secret to the promotion's overwhelming popularity: "I'm just really hungry." 26-year-old Adam Antreassian, a financial analyst, got on line at 11 a.m. and planned to get coffee with his chicken and mashed potatoes: "I thought, 'I'm pretty hungry. I'm going to get some KFC for breakfast." And Midtown Lunch observed one pitiful man wait on line for an hour only to get to the counter "and realize you needed a coupon (which he didn’t have.)"
The coupons for the free meals—which include two pieces of KFC's new grilled chicken, two sides, and a biscuit—can no longer be downloaded, but they are redeemable through May 19th. But can enough chickens be slaughtered to meet the demand? One Business Insider commenter astutely sums up the problem: "Anyone who printed the coupon now has made 50 copies at Kinkos and is now eating breakfast, lunch and dinner for FREE for the next two weeks. That's not a consumer trial, that's a Chicken Lovers Bailout."
Tagged
chicken
free
kfc
oprah
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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