“Let Them Eat Chicken” – How Oprah’s KFC Give-A-Way Became Her Worst Nightmare

by Spence Cooper on 08/05/09 at 11:08 am

How KFC was in the Fryer

Not since Marie Antoinette has such mass rage sizzled across the county as patrons were refused free chicken at KFC when trying to make good on their coupons compliments of Queen Oprah. Angry patrons waited in long lines Wednesday outside a New York City KFC and reportedly staged a sit-in when they were told the restaurant had run out of grilled chicken introduced three weeks ago, as lower in fat, calories and sodium than its traditional deep-fried chicken counterpart.

And now this harrowing report, it says on Gothamist blog, from the scene of a KFC on 42nd Street between Madison and Park has landed in our inbox:

“I went over to our nearest KFC a few minutes ago … and chaos ensued,” the e-mail read. “Despite the very visible grilled chicken behind the register, the manager told everyone with coupons to leave and that the promotion was over for the day. The people there are currently holding a sit-in and refusing to leave until they get their free chicken. … There were 911 calls. Racial epithets were being spewed, people who actually wanted to pay for chicken were facing a potential beat-down, and the manager ran from the screaming horde. Oprah, what have ye wrought?”

Grub Street had this to say: The thousands of user comments amount to a harrowing power struggle between those who’ve managed to download the coupon and those with only a proverbial wing and a prayer. Somewhere, as her loyal subjects descend into a desperate mob, Oprah must be out there saying, “Let them eat chicken!” Here are the most heart wrenching of the comments.

I’ve been trying to access the kfc coupon for over an hour now. i don’t know what’s wrong. and I really needed that coupon to feed my 2year old

Well I tried to use this coupon at 6 different KFC’s yesterday, and not one of them would take it. Said they were not taking them. What is up with that?

Oprah announced the meal promotion on her show Tuesday, then placed the coupons available for download on Oprah.com for 24 hours. Each downloadable coupon could be redeemed for two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual sides and a biscuit. The KFC Two Piece Meal Coupon deal was the top 10 trending topics on Twitter, and the fifth most-searched item on Google Trends by Wednesday afternoon, only hours after it had been posted. The rush to download the coupons jammed the web with traffic as the public tried to download the coupon before 9:59 p.m. KFC reacted by tweeting an apology and fielding dozens of Twitter complaints.

In North Carolina, “Greensboro Police were forced to block off the entrance to the KFC on Bessemer Avenue during the dinner rush Wednesday night. The police shutdown the restaurant when too many people packed inside, and many customers left empty handed“.

ABC news reports customers in Burbank, California said the manager at a store there turned away coupon-holding customers. “They were turning away droves of customers. I was in the store and there was plenty of chicken to fill the free orders as advertised,” Tom DeBaacker wrote ABC News in an email.

In Normal, Illinois, the KFC’s were either closed down or had signs claiming the coupons were valid only from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Jonathan Frederick pulled into the KFC on Main St. in Normal to find it closed for the day. Donna Glover of Normal, arrived at the KFC store in mid afternoon to find a sign saying it would be closed until 10:30 a.m. Friday. “They should have had enough food,” she said.

Scott Harvey with WAVE in Louisville, Kentucky, writes: “It was right around dinnertime Thursday when KFC restaurants started turning customers away and stopped accepting the coupons. Most of the loyal Kentucky Fried Chicken customers we talked to say they won’t be so loyal anymore“.

“They are turning everybody away,” said one angry customer who came out of the Bardstown Road KFC yelling. “You have to buy it yourself.”

“They just told us they aren’t honoring these anymore,” said Helen Johnson holding up her KFC coupon.

“They were the ones that were responsible for releasing the coupon, so I guess it was just poor planning on their part,” said Ed Scharge who stopped by to pick up dinner.

“It had to be bad planning, because they know when Oprah announced that, you know it’s going to get a great big response,” said Chauncey Blakey, who waited in line for 20 minutes only to be turned away.

It’s clear KFC was grossly unprepared for the promotion they even brazenly publicized on their own Twitter site. But according to a contributor at the Consumerist, KFC’s problem wasn’t chicken outages; the problem was that the franchised stores were not being reimbursed for the coupons. Oprah was backing corporate for the costs of the free chicken; “franchise stores, if they participate at all, are simply giving away food and losing the money“. The Consumerist also claims many KFC stores had signs stating their lack of participation. So obviously the entire event was a corporate bungle and poorly planned. Some managers “didn’t even know of the promotion beforehand“.

El Pollo Loco is slyly leveraging KFC’s blunder by “offering to honor the Oprah 2 Piece Meal coupon on Mother’s Day, a day excluded in the coupon’s May 5 – May 19 window. El Pollo Loco will give one free two-piece flame-grilled chicken meal per customer with the coupon on May 10”.

Witness KFC damage control in action. Here’s the “Rain check” statement on the KFC website:

We are so sorry, but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chicken™ meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time. But we will honor our commitment to giving you a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal.

Please visit a participating KFC restaurant for a rain check form. Complete the form, attach your original coupon , and give it to the KFC restaurant manager or postmark per the form’s instructions, by May 19, 2009, and we’ll send you a rain check for your free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal at a later date, plus a free Pepsi with our compliments. Your participating KFC restaurant will provide you with the form you need. Please note that the redemption periods of the rain checks will vary. All other terms and conditions of the original free Kentucky Grilled Chicken coupon will apply.