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  • It's two pieces of bread, a piece of fried chicken, dill pickles and a

  • squirt of mayo. Who would have thought such a humble sandwich could set

  • off a fast-food war.

  • In fast food, Chick-Fil-A has long dominated the chicken sandwich.

  • This simple sandwich is part of what propelled Chick-Fil-A to its spot as

  • the third biggest fast-food chain in the U.S.,

  • despite being closed on Sundays.

  • Chick-Fil-A's race to the top has scared even McDonald's, whose U.S.

  • franchisees asked corporate to develop a worthy competitor to

  • Chick-Fil-A's sandwich.

  • In the summer of 2019, a formidable opponent to Chick-Fil-A emergedand

  • it wasn't McDonald's.

  • Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen introduced its crispy chicken sandwich and

  • conflict started to brew.

  • The sandwich challenged Chick-Fil-A's dominance in the chicken sandwich

  • category and fast foods' biggest names got into the battle.

  • Popeyes sold out of the chicken sandwich in about two weeks.

  • During that time, analysts say other chicken chains, including

  • Chick-Fil-A, lost customers to Popeyes.

  • Americans are ordering and eating more chicken now than ever before.

  • In a highly competitive industry like fast food, brands are racing to

  • stake their claim. Chains that have long relied on chicken like

  • Chick-Fil-A and Popeyes are in prime position for victory.

  • Others, like hamburger-focused McDonald's, have missed out on dollars

  • spent by chicken hungry fans.

  • One thing is clear: Fast-food customers want chicken sandwiches and the

  • trend doesn't seem to be slowing.

  • Now the big chains are duking it out to deliver, despite supply chain

  • issues and fierce competition.

  • Part of Chick-Fil-A's brand messaging has been that it didn't invent the

  • chicken, just the chicken sandwich, but American studies professor Psyche

  • Williams-Forson says people have been eating this type of sandwich as long

  • as they have been eating bread and poultry.

  • There's evidence that lots of early colonial households who could afford

  • the ingredients to make bread and would have any kind of bird, would eat

  • bread and bird together.

  • How they did that?

  • You know, it's not necessarily known.

  • And of course, on through the centuries, we end up with what we know to be

  • the sandwich and the chicken sandwich at that.

  • And competition around the chicken sandwich isn't exactly new either.

  • Ebony magazine searched black newspaper archives and found ads for the

  • chicken sandwich, going back to as early as 1936.

  • Chick-Fil-A's founder S. Truett Cathy invented the chain's original

  • chicken sandwich in 1964.

  • That sandwich was made of a boneless chicken breast, breaded and fried in

  • peanut oil, and served on a toasted buttered bun with pickles.

  • The first Chick-Fil-A opened in 1967 and the chain has been closed on

  • Sundays since then.

  • Despite that, Chick-Fil-A is the third biggest restaurant chain in the

  • U.S. by system wide sales and reported more than $10 billion in revenue in

  • 2018. For comparison, Popeye's pulled in $3.7

  • billion in sales in 2018, making it the 25th largest U.S.

  • chain. When Popeye's parent company, Restaurant Brands International,

  • quietly discussed a new menu item in its May 2019 Investor Day, it didn't

  • know that the product's launch would cause such a frenzy.

  • It was the first time in its nearly 50-year history that Popeyes offered a

  • chicken sandwich that was available nationwide.

  • In the past, its menu tended to focus more on bone-in products.

  • This sandwich is a white meat breast fillet, pan-battered and breaded in a

  • buttermilk coating served on a brioche bun.

  • There is one version with regular mayonnaise and another with spicy mayo.

  • Popeyes rolled out its sandwich on August 12th, 2019.

  • One week later, this sandwich set off a virtual confrontation between some

  • of the biggest names in fast food.

  • Chick-Fil-A tweeted an equation suggesting that its sandwich was the

  • original and the best.

  • Popeyes had a simple, but pointed response to Chick-Fil-A.

  • Y'all good? Their check-in prompted other chicken brands to get into the

  • conversation. Soon, Wendy's and Shake Shack jumped into the Twitter feud,

  • too. This is what people love to see.

  • They love to see kind of folks going at it and in a fun and competitive

  • way, of course. This is the reality TV series happening in real time with

  • real companies in real dollars and real delicious food at stake.

  • Those tweets set off a social media firestorm and nearly doubled Popeyes

  • Twitter followers from 100,000 to 180,000.

  • A marketing group estimated that Popeyes received over $65.1

  • million dollars in equivalent advertising value for media mentions between

  • August 12th and August 27th.

  • The sandwich's impact was bigger than just raising Popeyes profile with

  • consumers. It was also a boon to Popeye's bottom line, thanks in part to

  • the chicken sandwich, sales at stores opened more than a year grew by 9.7

  • percent in the third quarter of 2019, compared to .5

  • percent growth in Q3 of 2018.

  • One analyst estimated that Popeyes sold about a 1,000 chicken sandwiches a

  • day and that the sandwich accounted for about 30 percent of sales while it

  • was available, at least.

  • After about two weeks with the chicken sandwich on the menu, Popeyes

  • around the country started selling out.

  • It simply ran out of chicken fillets.

  • Fans started posting pictures of handwritten, sold out signs on Popeyes'

  • doors and drive-thru menus.

  • Popeyes was even hit with a lawsuit by an angry customer for selling out

  • of the sandwich. You saw Popeyes' market share more than double and then

  • you did see a dip in foot traffic share at Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's, Burger

  • King and Wendy's. You know that the the actual infamous y'all good tweet

  • happened just as Wendy's was launching their spicy chicken sandwich and

  • and just as Burger King was launching the Impossible Whopper nationally.

  • So it sort of took the steam out of those promotions for for a few short

  • days. But the positive impact of Popeye Sandwich wasn't limited to just

  • that chain. The third quarter is the most important part of the year for

  • fast-food companies because it includes the summer months, a crucial

  • selling season. It was a very successful third quarter for fast food in

  • general. I think it was probably the most fastest sales growth in several

  • years. And the chicken sandwich has some responsibility for that sector

  • wide growth. Hype around Popeyes' national release of its chicken sandwich

  • actually benefited its competitors.

  • Chicken-focused fast food restaurants like KFC and Chick-Fil-A saw traffic

  • spike in late August 2019.

  • Over a typical summer weekend, Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A, Zaxby's and KFC would

  • get about 8.3

  • million visitors, according to foot traffic analytics platform Pacer.ai.

  • But at the peak of the Chicken Sandwich War, the chains had 10.1

  • million visitors over a weekend.

  • And now Popeyes has brought its sandwich back.

  • Its nationwide launch on November 3rd, 2019 saw huge crowds.

  • Traffic at Popeyes that day rose almost 300 percent higher than normal.

  • One analyst estimated at busy Popeyes locations sold up to 1,500 chicken

  • sandwiches per store every day for the first 10 days the sandwich was

  • back, effectively doubling sales volume at those stores.

  • And Popeyes' competitors are racing to keep up.

  • In July 2019, McDonald's U.S.

  • franchisees asked the company to add a southern-style chicken sandwich to

  • rival Chick-Fil-A's.

  • Franchisees said McNuggets and McChicken sandwiches weren't enough to

  • compete in the premium chicken sandwich category.

  • On an earnings call, McDonald's said it missed out on some business in

  • chicken.

  • In December 2019, Mcdonald's started testing a crispy chicken sandwich,

  • officially entering the chicken sandwich wars.

  • Well they said on their conference call that they actually lost share

  • during in the chicken segment, but they gained share in the burger

  • segment. So clearly, this is an issue for them that they're looking to

  • correct. The franchisees have been asking for a premium chicken sandwich

  • for some time. You know, the sandwich isn't likely to be hand-breaded,

  • hand-battered the way it is at Popeyes.

  • So McDonald's will have to find a way to win on their core advantages,

  • which is speed, convenience and value.

  • The war is far from over.

  • And if I were to make a longer-term prediction, I would not predict that

  • Chick-Fil-A would be a loser in that chicken war overall.

  • There's so much momentum behind the growth of that company and so much

  • brand equity that it just resonates with consumers young, old and

  • everywhere in between in a lot of ways.

  • For decades, hamburgers have been Americans' sandwich of choice on

  • fast-food menus.

  • Now chicken sandwiches are stealing some of the spotlight.

  • Chicken sandwiches remain number two, but they are gaining ground with

  • consumers faster than burgers are.

  • According to market research firm NPD Group, for the year ended February

  • 2019, four billion chicken sandwich servings were ordered at U.S.

  • restaurants. During the same time period, burgers were more popular with

  • 8.6 billion ordered, but chicken sandwich orders were up four percent

  • while burger orders stayed flat.

  • On average, diners still purchase burgers more frequently than they

  • purchase chicken sandwiches.

  • But burger makers shouldn't rest too easy.

  • In general, chicken consumption is on the rise.

  • From 1960 to 2018, per capita chicken consumption has risen 235 percent to

  • 93.8 pounds a year.

  • During the same time period, per capita consumption of beef has fallen 9.6

  • percent. 1991 was the last year people ate more beef than chicken.

  • In 2018, Americans ate about 94 pounds of chicken compared to 57 pounds of

  • beef. That's a pretty dramatic difference in that, you know, and that's a

  • reversal from 40, 50 years ago.

  • This was not always the case.

  • And it goes to show what technological progress and changes in consumption

  • habits, those combination of factors can do to change our diets.

  • Analysts point to three main factors that have contributed to higher

  • chicken consumption: health concerns, technological advances and a growing

  • population. The National Institutes of Health and the World Health

  • Organization have linked red meat consumption to heart disease and cancer.

  • Some have pointed to white meat like chicken and fish as a healthier

  • alternative. Technological advances have also made it possible to produce

  • larger chickens more quickly, and the price of chicken has fallen in

  • recent years. If you look at what's happened to the price of chicken

  • relative to say beef, it's fallen by about 45 percent over the last 20

  • years. So today chicken is about a third of the price of beef at the

  • retail level. A similar thing has happened for pork.

  • So today, chicken is about half the price of pork.

  • But in the chicken sandwich war, not all chicken is created equal.

  • Some pieces are better for sandwiches than others.

  • Most fast food chains rely on breast meat for its sandwiches, which is

  • typically more expensive than chicken wings or thighs.

  • Fast-food restaurants have offered chicken items for years, but analysts

  • say this social media feud attracted a new generation of consumers.

  • Certainly the generation that follows social media might might go into a

  • fast-casual restaurant.

  • You know, maybe your Chipotle consumer or your Shake Shack consumer

  • doesn't really look to traditional fast food as having a, you know, high

  • quality, upper-level experience and so by having a product that is of

  • that, you know, that that rivals the chicken shack will bring in a

  • generation that's probably never eaten a Big Mac before.

  • Burger orders may be flat.

  • But despite attracting a new audience, analysts don't think chicken

  • sandwiches will pull ahead of burgers any time soon.

It's two pieces of bread, a piece of fried chicken, dill pickles and a

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麥當勞的Popeyes、Chick-Fil-A和雞肉三明治大戰。 (McDonald's Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A And The Chicken Sandwich Wars)

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