There’s an interesting bit of that article that talks about ‘just-in-time’ 24-hour turnaround order styles being part of the problem, and that raised my eyebrows a bit - working in food service in America, there often isn’t enough storage space in the restaurant to have any sort of ordering system that ISN’T stocked every 24 or 48 hours, especially weekends or holidays. Is the daily volume so much less in the UK? Or are the restaurant kitchens and fridges simply bigger?
Question to our friends in the UK out of curiosity - when you are thinking of KFC, do you ask your friends if they’re in the mood for American food?
Sadly (or not, depending on your opinion of British cuisine), there’s no analogue for that question in the U.S.
No. I doubt anyone has ever said that, to be honest.
It would be like asking your friends if you want to go out for English food when you want fish & chips.
After reading this, I wants me some KFC bad!
Nicely done.
No, I think they’re using a JiT type supply chain model with minimal onsite storage - and I think that’s the nub of the issue - DHL can’t handle the job of keeping it stocked.
10 herbs and spices?
I think people generally just regard it as an indulgent treat - by which I mean, it’s different from most other fast foods in that you get to sit down and eat essentially a massive pile of greasy meat, without being troubled by bread, salad or anything else like that. Everyone knows it originates in the USA, but I don’t think it’s regarded as a cross-cultural adventure to eat there.
It looks like Subway is king.
At least Leeroy Jenkins has chicken.
Not my original:
Why did the chicken cross the road? It didn’t. Road crossing has been outsourced to these pigeons who, we are very sorry to say, have shat on your car.
It’s interesting that the king of fast food is the one whose secret recipe is “put some cold cuts on a piece of bread”. Also that they have more than twice as many locations as KFC but barely half the revenue, and more locations than McDonald’s but less than half the revenue.
“Most popular” does not necessarily mean “has the most restaurants”. 
The last time I visited family in Pakistan (which was… 2005ish?) I was surprised by the number of KFCs everywhere in Karachi. Apparently its a spicier fried chicken than we’d be used to (which sounds absolutely awesome - unfortunately I didn’t get to try it).
I’m going to say that could be because of the relative simplicity of a Subway restaurant setup compared to some of the others - it’s little more than an oven stack, a salad bar and a hot counter - meaning that Subway can pop up in places where there isn’t space for a burger restaurant
Yeah, and they seem to be on a downward spiral, according to this. Of course, the market’s changed over time (hits a lot of old fast food places) and they had the scandal with Jared (don’t really know how much that played in, of course).
Someone mentioned them being easy to pop up due to simplicity. When my cousin opened one (over ten years ago), she said she chose it because it was the cheapest franchise.
I wonder, too, if they just have too many locations in too close proximity sometimes.
Thank you.
I live in a town of 5,500 people. We have three Subways.
Nice work, Jared!