Posts Tagged ‘KFC’
“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000″*…
And that change is coming for China… Even as trade tension tighten between China and the U.S., foreign investment in China drops, and talk of decoupling grows (see, e.g., here and here), one sector of American business is doubling down on the Chinese market…
There’s been no shortage of tough news for China’s economy as some of the world’s biggest brands consider or take action to shift manufacturing to friendlier shores at a time of unease about security controls, protectionism and wobbly relations between Beijing and Washington.
Count Adidas, Apple and Samsung among those looking elsewhere.
But as a tumultuous 2023 for the Chinese economy comes to a close, there has been at least one bright spot for Beijing when it comes to foreign investment: American fast-food chains have decided a market of 1.4 billion people is simply too delicious to pass up.
KFC China’s parent company opened its 10,000th restaurant in China this month and aims to have stores within reach of half of China’s population by 2026. McDonald’s is planning to open 3,500 new stores in China over the next four years. And Starbucks invested $220 million in a manufacturing and distribution facility in eastern China, its biggest project outside the U.S.
This is surely not what Chinese President Xi Jinping had in mind as he made the case to American CEOs about the upside of China’s “super-large market” last month while he was in San Francisco for a summit of world leaders. The investments in fast food and other consumer goods, while Washington is curbing exports of computer chips and other advanced technology, don’t fit into China’s own blueprint for modernizing its economy…
Unlike manufacturing plants, fast-food franchises are relatively easy to set up and break down and don’t have to worry about IP security/theft. So, even as trade policy hardens and manufacturing/tech companies lean away, “American fast-food companies find China’s 1.4 billion population too delicious to resist,” from @BusinessInsider.
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As we supersize that, we might spare a thought for Fred Turner; he died on this date in 2013. One of the first employees hired by McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc, Turner rose quickly through the ranks, and succeeded Kroc as CEO in 1977.
Turner founded Hamburger University in 1961 and was a co-founder of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
The baddest ad…
Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority publishes an annual list of the broadcast commercials that generated the most complaints. The Guardian recounts this year’s “winners”… but reminds readers that none of them came close to achieving the opprobrium earned by the most complained-about ad of all time, this 2005 KFC spot:
And while we’re on the subject… “one in eight American workers has been employed by McDonalds,” and 25 other interesting fast food facts.
[TotH to Next Draft]
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As we supersize that, we might note the proprietary of the fact that this is the feast date of St. Justin Martyr… (the patron saint of apologists and speakers).
Carpe Diem, Y’all…
It’s Hump Day– time for a little treat to help one across to the shore of the weekend. How about…
Deep-Fried Coke
The frozen Coca-Cola-flavored batter is deep-fried and topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and a cherry. Estimated to have 830 calories and 28 grams of fat per cup.
or maybe…
The KFC Double Down
This “diet special” (no bread) features two boneless fried chicken fillets as the “bun,” with two pieces of bacon, two slices each of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese, and the Colonel’s Sauce as filling. Estimated to have 540 calories and 32 grams of fat (Rolling out through KFC franchises in the U.S. starting last Monday.)
Eight other candidates at “The 10 Craziest Food Abominations of All Time.”
As we check to assure that our medical insurance payments are current, we might recall that it was on this date in 1846 that the Donner Party departed Springfield, Illinois for California… a journey on which they too would explore unexpected culinary territory.
Camp at Donner Lake, November, 1846- From an old drawing made from a description furnished by Wm. G. Murphy (a survivor who was ten when he was rescued). Source
How quickly we forget…
First, KFC misplaces the specs for its 11 secret herbs and spices… Now, it’s the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration.
The U.S. NNSA needs to refurbish the aging warheads on Trident missiles to assure their safety and reliability, but the program has been set back a year, at an additional cost of $69 million, because the agency has lost track of the recipe for a key ingredient, a mysterious but very hazardous material code-named “Fogbank.” The secret sauce is thought to be a foamy, explosive solvent cleaning agent (and who couldn’t use one some of that at times) that plays a key role between the fission and fusion stages of a thermonuclear bomb.
Unfortunately, the last batch was made some 20 years ago, and in the meantime, not only was the sole production facility torn down, but, according to a GAO report, “NNSA lost knowledge of how to manufacture the material because it kept few records of the process when the material was made in the 1980s, and almost all staff with expertise on production retired or left the agency.”
A new production facility has been built, work on recreating the recipe continues… and Homer Simpson is saying “Doh.”
(Thanks, GMSV)
As we resolve to back-up our files, we might we recall that on this date in 1912, immortal pitcher Cy Young retired from baseball, having scored 511 wins in his 21 year career– 815 starts, another ecord. (The next highest total belongs to Walter Johnson, who won 417 games for the Washington, D.C. team variously known as the Nationals and the Senators. And to put this in a more modern perspective, the “winningest” active pitcher, Greg Maddux, has 355 wins on 740 starts.)
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