Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/20/britains-kfcs-just-ran-out-o.html
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Over 20 years ago I went to McDonalds and they said they were out of fries. I’ve never been back.
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Why close your doors? Just find another animal that starts with “C” and fry that. Isn’t that why they officially changed their name to just the acronym? To give themselves that sort of flexibility?
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Look, a little time in the deep fryer and nobody will be any the wiser…
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The previous distributor is pissed. Apparently they explained to KFC that they had a series of very necessary distribution centers across the country and DHL did not, so DHL weren’t going to be able to fulfill the contract. But DHL was cheaper (because they are working out of only one distribution center, presumably), so the previous distributor had to lay off hundreds of people when they lost the contract, and KFC had to close all their outlets and not pay their workers, because some corporate nimrod at KFC couldn’t figure out the obvious.
I think of shit like this every time someone talks about how much more “efficient” businesses are than governments.
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If the shortage lasts more than a week or so, Britain stands to lose millions of pounds*.
*Weight/currency/both.
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I can sympathize with those franchisees. I’ve shipped things via DHL too and they are the worst. Well, maybe not quite as bad as LaserShip, but absolutely worse than FedEx, UPS, or even the USPS. The only thing they do excel at is losing packages.
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OH OH, I think I know about some history here that explains both the chicken shortage AND why US automakers rule the truck market in the US, unlike all the other types of autos.
Back in they day, I want to say in the 70s, there was a trade dispute, as US chickens were so cheap and plentiful, we could ship them meat cheaper than the UK could grow their own. So they put a tariff in place as a protectionism measure, and the US countered with a tariff on trucks. And that is why Ford and Chevy still rule the roost with their trucks in the US, and the UK doesn’t have as much cheap and plentiful chicken meat.
Normal British food is so horrible, fried properly it might be a step up.
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A lot of this kind of bungling has been going on lately. See also the recent problems at Whole Foods, where their broken “OTS” system has led to bare produce shelves and overstressed employees.
If I wasn’t already aware of the utter incompetence of some MBAs who make it to senior management I’d suspect these incidents are testing to see how we spoiled Western consumers will react to Soviet-style shortages post-global-warming.
Still, I’ve noticed these “you had one job” food-related failures a lot more lately: the local pizza place that’s now run out of cheese or pepperoni slices on numerous occasions; the sit-down sushi place that twice now couldn’t serve my party sushi for 2 hours because it was all already designated for Seamless-style delivery services.
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Dunno, sees like a golden opportunity for them.
Distributor: “We told you so”
KFC: “We want you back”
Distributor: “Sure, but it will cost you…”
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I thought the British formed their empire so they wouldn’t have to eat British food all of the time. They were willing to trade with anybody who had some goddamn spice.
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As someone who has had things delivered to by DHL, I have a hard time believing any professional thinks they have their shit together.
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Plenty yard-bird over here.
Why… Why do they all have a shared central spinal cord?
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[Thanks to @anon73430903]
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Nuggets…?
