KFC has temporarily closed 80 percent of its restaurants in Britain. Why? Because they don’t have enough chicken. Or in the case of KFC in the UK, the chickens they want to serve are having problems crossing the road. KFC recently switched delivery services, and the new one can’t handle the demand and logistics. Going to another chicken source might compromise quality for the restaurants, so they opted to close the stores until things can be fixed. If you’re a chicken restaurant and there’s not enough chicken, you close. That’s how business works. 750 UK KFC locations have shut their doors.
The regular fast food diner hardly considers all the work that goes into delivering her happy meal. In billionaire investor Ray Dalio’s fascinating book Principles, Dalio mentions one of his early, proudest accomplishments — one that has clearly had an impact in America. Decades ago Dalio brokered a deal between McDonald’s and the nation’s chicken producers that guaranteed the fast food giant a future supply of chicken in a set price range — the deal that paved the way for McDonald’s to introduce the Chicken McNugget. To begin serving McNuggets nationwide, McDonald’s needed supply and insurance against a price spike. KFC and Colonel Sanders in Britain could sure use a Ray Dalio now.
