Popeyes Ignited the Chicken Sandwich War 1 Year Ago Today. Here's How It's Celebrating.
The chain posted the viral "... y'all good?" tweet at Chick-fil-A on August 19, 2019.
It may feel like a century ago, but Popeyes started the fast food fried chicken sandwich war with a shade-filled tweet exactly one year ago on Wednesday. While the one-year anniversary of the sandwich's nationwide debut was actually a week ago on August 12, it looks like Popeyes is instead marking the one-year anniversary of the moment it brutally owned Chick-fil-A on Twitter, which damn-near instantly transformed its already-popular sandwich into a viral sensation. As you may recall, it was sold out across the country only a week later.
Popeyes is celebrating the petty milestone on Wednesday by offering a special delivery deal and even revealing some interesting stats about the chicken sandwich's performance over the last 12 months, including exactly how many pickles it has used in the millions of sandwiches served. The chain is also throwing some more shade -- this time, at the year 2020 -- by launching a countdown to 2021 four and half months early. In a press release, Popeyes asks, "2020 -- y'all good?"
Yep, we can probably all get behind crapping on 2020, but let's get to the delivery deal. For one day only on August 19, you can score totally free delivery when you order from participating locations via the Popeyes mobile app. To get the deal, just fire up the app and it should appear prominently on the main page. That's it. That's the deal. Maybe the company will offer something a bit more exciting for the sandwich's two-year anniversary. We can hope.
MORE: Popeyes told us how it developed it developed its chicken sandwich.
In addition to the delivery deal, Popeyes has served up some interesting stats about the sandwich. Here are all the numbers, per a spokesperson:
- When the chicken sandwich online conversation was at its peak between August 17 and September 1, Popeyes totaled 338,000 conversations, which equates to 16 tweets per minute about the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.
- Popeyes sold 203 million Chicken Sandwiches in the past year.
- There were 405 million pickles used on Chicken Sandwiches since launch.
- Texas sold the most Chicken Sandwiches in the last 12 months.
- The most sandwiches sold by one store in one day was 3,582 sandwiches on 11/3/19.
Congratulations, Texas. And, well, congratulations, Popeyes. A whole year later, the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich is still far and away the best fast food fried chicken sandwich. Yes, KFC is working on a Popeyes sandwich-killer, but it has yet to hit menus nationwide. McDonald's has been hinting at forthcoming "innovation" in the chicken category for a while now, but has nothing to show for it. Chick-fil-A? Crickets. For now, Popeyes remains king.
Popeyes may be counting down to the arrival of 2021, but we're more excited about counting down to the day when it launches a new take on its chicken sandwich -- whenever that may be.
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