Wingstop, KFC, Etc. Troubles

[Alpha8472]

Despite the popularity of Chick-fil-a, Wingstop, KFC, and some other chains seem to be failing.

KFC has reported disappointing earnings. Wingstop is offering a free chicken sandwich this Thursday to Sunday with a chicken purchase. Code: freesammy However, the prices on the 10 piece wings are $10.99 boneless, $15.99 bone-in.

KFC is giving out a free 3 piece tender box with a $10 purchase.

Everything is so expensive and mediocre at the same time.

I don't see many customers at Wingstop or KFC these days.

[babs]

Despite the popularity of Chick-fil-a, Wingstop, KFC, and some other chains seem to be failing.

KFC has reported disappointing earnings. Wingstop is offering a free chicken sandwich this Thursday to Sunday with a chicken purchase. Code: freesammy However, the prices on the 10 piece wings are $10.99 boneless, $15.99 bone-in.

KFC is giving out a free 3 piece tender box with a $10 purchase.

Everything is so expensive and mediocre at the same time.

I don't see many customers at Wingstop or KFC these days.

Honestly, I rarely seem any line, inside or out, at KFC in many years. Now I do see customers at Wingstop.

[ClownLoach]

Wingstop has gone to absolute crap. I noticed they were going downhill in quality and service while prices were going up, but I tried again. I went for what will now be the last time last week. I do like their fries and cheese sauce, it's a guilty pleasure.

I went during the 60¢ boneless wings promotion which is Mondays and Tuesdays. They have a huge "calendar" on the walls in these stores that is a roll of pre-printed butcher paper with the days special offer. They just tear it off every few days and advance the roll for the next promotion, easy-peasy. Of course this one, on the wall 3 feet wide and 5 feet tall was 60¢ boneless wings Mondays and Tuesdays.

Ordered with a few other items, paid (note there is nowhere on the customer facing screen or PIN pad that gives you an itemized total), and the cashier went to just peel off the receipt and toss it. I asked for the receipt as tbe math in my head was suddenly saying "doesn't add up" and sure enough they charged 80¢ each instead of the advertised 60¢. I told him that he needs to refund the difference, and he said that it is priced at 80¢ on a window decal somewhere outside that I apparently didn't see, as if he didn't hear me when he took the order and I asked for the "60¢ boneless wings" and pointed to the giant sign. Then got the runaround that they're already making my order and the manager isn't there to do a refund. Smug attitude from the guy, as if I shouldn't have called them out for the overcharge.

Magically this order took almost 20 minutes to cook, despite nobody else being there, and I took my food home. Surprise... I am convinced that to spite me for complaining they went through the freezer and went to find the absolute smallest pieces in the restaurant. These "boneless wings" were the size of my thumbnail. The ten pieces probably weighed less than 4 ounces total. They were fried to a consistency of foam rubber, rock hard and inedible. I think a couple pieces were just lumps of breading, consistent with my theory they actually took the effort to try to screw me over and picked out the tiny pieces from the bin. Only one piece was "normal" size. I think one Raising Cane's chicken finger is the same amount of meat as what I got for $8.00.

Looking at Yelp reviews they apparently have lost control of all their franchisees as every location I could find in the surrounding area is between 1.5 and 2.0 stars now.

Never, ever, again. Permanently off my list.

[Alpha8472]

That's truly awful. I always wondered why Wingstop takes so long. With Yelp reviews around 1 or 2 stars, I don't know how they can survive.

[mbz321]

There are almost no KFC's left in the Philadelphia suburbs (funny enough, there is still one listed on the KFC website that closed a few years ago and has since been converted into a CAVA, and another one that was shared with a Taco Bell, but the KFC part was dropped a long time ago as well). Popeye's has been springing up like crazy though, and IMO, offer a much better product.

[storewanderer]

I was ordering from Wingstop somewhat often due to convenience reasons as it is by Smiths and Kroger's hot food is basically trash so it was easy to go to Wing Stop in the same parking lot. The boneless wings were .60 here in 2022 and then went to .70 on the promotion days at that point. Not sure what the current price is.

I stopped ordering there sometime around last Christmas for a few reasons:

1. I really like their BBQ sauce, but as a dipping sauce and not directly dupmed on the wings. So I'd order part of the wings plain and ask for the cup of BBQ sauce. There is some sort of unwritten rule that doing that means you can get a side of BBQ sauce. It has been this way for the past ~20 years. With the manager and most of the employees there was no problem with this but I ran into situations with a few employees who demanded $2 for that extra cup of BBQ sauce, which I was able to get after asking for the manager (even different managers), but then one employee was particularly hostile who passive aggressively dumped the container of fries over the rest of the food in the bag when putting the BBQ sauce cup into the bag.
2. I would look back into the back as they cooked and I noticed the fries were fried in oil that looked like mud. Wing Stop serves fresh cut fries and I think this means they are not washing the dirt off the potatoes properly.
3. I received multiple wings that were very undersized and had almost no meat.
4. The salt level in this food seemed out of control.
5. Multiple times I did an online order and when I got there, they had no record of it. They could look it up on the register and find it then I'd have to wait 20 minutes. I watched other customers come in and had the same thing happen.

Lately I have noticed fewer customers at Wing Stop and I was thinking I should try them again to see how things are going. The Google Reviews for the location are still pretty positive with a solid 4/5 rating.

KFC is total garbage. I do not even know how the US KFC brand is still in business. Very rarely do I see a location with customers, let alone a crowd. The locations in Reno have serious issues with food freshness, cleanliness, and sanitation and I will NEVER return to them in Reno. But sometimes I purchase it out of town. I usually don't have great experiences. They had a promotion couple weeks ago where you got the sandwich free with $5 purchase. So I ordered the 3 Tenders/Fry $5 then got the sandwich. I actually like their sandwich. They refry it which should be against food safety guidelines but is what they seem to do everywhere I've ordered one (take from warmer when you order, fry for 45 seconds, then serve) but it is still good. The "new tenders" are what I envision 7-Eleven chicken tenders cooked in their convection oven to taste like (if there is such a thing)- really not good, frozen dinner level, and the fries were so salty they were inedible. The sandwich was pretty good.

Popeyes is hit and miss. In Reno there are a few locations in the area, one of them makes excellent food 9 times out of 10. The other two have issues. One was just closed for a few weeks due to a kitchen fire supposedly caused by grease build up. That was the same one I went into for a couple months, noticed no soap dispenser in the restroom, left without ordering anything... But the other location that is consistently producing excellent food 9 times out of 10, they've had a great run since COVID. Service has improved the past year too. Cleanliness is very poor but the food hits it out of the park almost every time. The app has various glitches in it that enable some unadvertised deals.

[ClownLoach]

I was ordering from Wingstop somewhat often due to convenience reasons as it is by Smiths and Kroger's hot food is basically trash so it was easy to go to Wing Stop in the same parking lot. The boneless wings were .60 here in 2022 and then went to .70 on the promotion days at that point. Not sure what the current price is.

I stopped ordering there sometime around last Christmas for a few reasons:

1. I really like their BBQ sauce, but as a dipping sauce and not directly dupmed on the wings. So I'd order part of the wings plain and ask for the cup of BBQ sauce. There is some sort of unwritten rule that doing that means you can get a side of BBQ sauce. It has been this way for the past ~20 years. With the manager and most of the employees there was no problem with this but I ran into situations with a few employees who demanded $2 for that extra cup of BBQ sauce, which I was able to get after asking for the manager (even different managers), but then one employee was particularly hostile who passive aggressively dumped the container of fries over the rest of the food in the bag when putting the BBQ sauce cup into the bag.
2. I would look back into the back as they cooked and I noticed the fries were fried in oil that looked like mud. Wing Stop serves fresh cut fries and I think this means they are not washing the dirt off the potatoes properly.
3. I received multiple wings that were very undersized and had almost no meat.
4. The salt level in this food seemed out of control.
5. Multiple times I did an online order and when I got there, they had no record of it. They could look it up on the register and find it then I'd have to wait 20 minutes. I watched other customers come in and had the same thing happen.

There is something wrong systemically. As you describe, there is a certain level of hostility towards the customer that is beyond anything I've seen at any other fast food chain. We all know there is a level of apathy that is unwelcome but expected, this is outright hostility and the message is "the customer is always wrong and needs to pay for it." I threw out those chicken pieces after seeing the one edible size one was overcooked to rubber inside and the tiny breading bits, it probably would crumble up to dry flakes.

I have seen this attitude develop since they began deliveries. Many Doordash and other drivers are exceptionally rude, but they take it out on every customer. The location I used to go to at least once a week in Long Beach closed and the franchisee started a new burrito chain called Blue Burro that is very good out of that site (next to the also now closed Ralphs Fresh Fare that is currently a tiny Target I also expect to close soon). He went from franchisee to franchisor and to the best of my knowledge has converted the few Wing Stop sites he operated to Buffalo Stop. He was an outstanding operator, place was always packed, food was fantastic. I was shocked when it closed and I don't think the burrito chain is as busy, so that tells me that there is something wrong with the Wing Stop system that he decided to pull out.

My experience with multiple Wing Stop locations in Orange County was almost universally bad, hostile service but edible food. At first it was the same in Riverside County, but now the food is bad too and the employees act like they're paying for the meat out of their own pockets.

My wife was pissed and managed to get the District Manager on the phone, she put him in his place, but he didn't really seem to care and offered one free chicken strip meal for the inconvenience and overcharge. Not even worth going and I'm sure if the employees saw us with the coupon they would do something to the food. That always seems like a old bad joke but the hostility is so bad I actually believe it would happen here.

They don't seem to get the concept that the customer pays your paycheck.

[Alpha8472]

I had a couple of scary experiences at a Popeye's in Concord, California years ago. I went inside and there were about 20 customers complaining about how they have all been waiting a long time and that they were out of most of the menu items.

The customers were upset and the employees were yelling back and antagonizing them. I seriously thought that the employees and customers were about to physically attack each other. I had never felt so unsafe at a fast food restaurant in my entire life. Another time, I was at the drive thru order speaker for about 15 minutes before an employee answered. "Are you still there?" Maybe they thought that all of their customers would just go away.

[storewanderer]

There is something wrong systemically. As you describe, there is a certain level of hostility towards the customer that is beyond anything I've seen at any other fast food chain. We all know there is a level of apathy that is unwelcome but expected, this is outright hostility and the message is "the customer is always wrong and needs to pay for it." I threw out those chicken pieces after seeing the one edible size one was overcooked to rubber inside and the tiny breading bits, it probably would crumble up to dry flakes.

I have seen this attitude develop since they began deliveries. Many Doordash and other drivers are exceptionally rude, but they take it out on every customer. The location I used to go to at least once a week in Long Beach closed and the franchisee started a new burrito chain called Blue Burro that is very good out of that site (next to the also now closed Ralphs Fresh Fare that is currently a tiny Target I also expect to close soon). He went from franchisee to franchisor and to the best of my knowledge has converted the few Wing Stop sites he operated to Buffalo Stop. He was an outstanding operator, place was always packed, food was fantastic. I was shocked when it closed and I don't think the burrito chain is as busy, so that tells me that there is something wrong with the Wing Stop system that he decided to pull out.

My experience with multiple Wing Stop locations in Orange County was almost universally bad, hostile service but edible food. At first it was the same in Riverside County, but now the food is bad too and the employees act like they're paying for the meat out of their own pockets.

My wife was pissed and managed to get the District Manager on the phone, she put him in his place, but he didn't really seem to care and offered one free chicken strip meal for the inconvenience and overcharge. Not even worth going and I'm sure if the employees saw us with the coupon they would do something to the food. That always seems like a old bad joke but the hostility is so bad I actually believe it would happen here.

They don't seem to get the concept that the customer pays your paycheck.

I've just found Wing Stop is like a Subway style chain. You never quite know what is going to happen when you go to one.

The delivery drivers are either very polite or very impolite. The bottom line is if you have the order ready for the delivery driver at the promised time there is not an issue as they get out of there so fast there is not any time for there to be any problems. This Popeyes I go to, it get so many mobile orders, I can be standing there for 10 minutes and I'll see 5-6 mobile orders come up and 3-4 pick ups occur. If the food is ready the driver is in and out of there in a few seconds. It works great.

But if they get too backed up or run out of some common item then the drivers start to stack up waiting and they start to get impatient and unpleasant. The order area becomes a mess because they have too many "half fulfilled" orders sitting there waiting to be completed. It just is not good.

If you want to redeem the coupon you could call ahead for a phone in order then present the coupon upon pick up (assuming the food is compete when you get there).

[veteran+]

It's like playing Russian Roulette with these fast food, fast casual restaurants.

Perhaps it's time to pack lunch whenever possible?

So much time and money being wasted and being subjected to such rudeness.