Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) may be your favorite fast food chain but right now would not be a good time to be a KFC patron in China. The giant restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, is facing the ire of some in China after one of its meal promotions in the country backfired. A top Chinese consumer group is calling for boycott of the company after it alleged that KFC is encouraging wastage of food.
A BBC report states that KFC launched a meal promotion in association with Pop Mart, a toy maker made famous by its ‘mystery boxes’, where customers will be able to collect limited editions of round-faced and large-eyed Dimoo dolls along with buying certain meal sets. This was done to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the food chain’s presence in the Chinese market. However,the China Consumers Association (CCA) said that this has sent customers into a frenzied buying spree who are buying the meals, regardless of whether they consume them or not.
KFC “used limited-edition blind box sales to induce and condone consumers’ irrational and excessive purchase of meal sets, which goes against public order, good customs and the spirit of the law,” CCA said in a statement.
The statement by CCA said that one consumer even spent 10,494 yuan (₹1, 22,453) in one go on more than 100 meals just to collect the toy figurines. Some people paid others to purchase the meals for them or simply discarded the meal.
In 2020, the Chinese government led by President Xi Jinping initiated a major campaign against food waste called the ‘Clean Plate Campaign,’ as reported by BBC. It was launched during the early stages of the COVID19 pandemic and President Xi had called the statistics of food wastage ‘shocking and distressing’
The operator of KFC in the country, Yum China and Pop Mart did not respond to BBC’s attempt to contact them.
