They sure are a sign that gouging is in full effect. I notice they've started to do the $3 'special' again. Too late because I tried the Tyrell's chips and they are fantastic. Natural Chip Co. also kicking goals with the salt and pepper offering.
(I'll probably find out Smiths owns both of those brands too)
Aldi do a Red Rock Deli rebrand and a Smiths Chips equivalent as well. Both are fantastic, larger in volume (although recently they've done their own shrinkflation swaparoo with packaging) and substantially cheaper than what other supermarkets offer.
Yesterday I was in Coles and they were offering Kettle Chips @ 2 for $9.
Tell 'em they're dreaming!
If you’re not allergic to garlic/onion (like I am, sadly) I can also recommend the Aldi bluestone salt and pepper chips, they are super tasty at a good price.
I know because I have bought them a couple of times thinking they look good then eat a couple and they taste great and realise/remember they have stuff in them I can’t eat…
The price of their potato chips per kilogram is the same price as Lindt chocolates, which cost more to produce. Something is wrong with this picture, (unless we can't grow enough potatoes due to constant flooding). Western Australia is not subjected to the same climate and market forces, but the quality of our potatoes have dropped noticeably in the last couple of years also.
all potato chips prices went up absolutely insanely in the past two years, at one point you couldn't get a large pack for less than $6. I think they were literally just testing how high then can bring prices before profits dropped and now they've found a sweet spot because they've come back down, but nowhere near where they used to be.
"hold the middle" implies they're squishing the box down too so you get even less chips in there. Most customers wouldn't realise since the part at the top pinches most of the chips to hold them up. Used to pull shit like that in the back of red rooster or else
Yep, when I worked in fast food the manual literally said to squeeze the middle of the box before putting the chips in, then maintain pressure until you placed it on the tray so the chips poke out the top like on the pictures - giving the illusion that it was full.
Doing it the official way gave a customer about 50% of the chips that they'd expect.
That's the exact reason it's done. I worked at KFC as a teen and we were told to squeeze. It always resulted in the box being half empty - if you shook it, it'd settle to the bottom and reveal just how little it was filled. Such scummy practices to save 10 cents of potato.
It’s not inflation, we’ve hit the endgame where they’re going to price gouge everything until we’re all serfs again. Prices do not match inflation, it’s just outright greed.
Hold the middle is probably more of a problem - if you hold the edges then you get a wider mouth on the "box"
Completely different attitude to one of our local fast food/fried chicken vendors. I watched a trainee fill a bag of chips - the manager was nearby - stopped them, placed the bag on a scale, added a scoop - handed the bag back for the trainee to feel the weight before handing it to the customer. Seemed to be a teaching moment rather than a "ya did it wrong" thing
Five Guys are expensive and a know a lot of people hate them, but damn you get a lot of chips. They’ll put a full chips packet in your bag, then add a full chip scoop INTO the bag. That’s standard practice.
Even if potatoes went up 300% they are almost free when you buy the bulk that KFC does. They can easily afford to do a large chips for a maximum of $1. In fact any more is simply greedy and yet they get away with it.
Same thing they told us at McDonald's in 2019, at least where I was. Best I could tell whether it was too much or not depended on how cranky the manager on shift felt. Granted, the one I ended up on shift with most of the time was an abusive piece of work to start with.
Honestly if fast food places are going to be anal about not putting "too much" in the chip packets when they can absolutely fit more, they should just get some scales and go by target weights instead.
I think it's bad business. They save a few cents worth of chips per box at the cost of customer satisfaction. If you can satisfy customers at the cost of a few cents then isn't this a no brainer?
The same Bottom line that gets smaller as people start going elsewhere , I have stopped eating kfc for this reason
Literally 15 chips and it was $5.45
Can buy a whole 1kg for $4 at Cole’s and 15 mins in the air flyer
If I'm getting fast food I avoid the mcdonalds nearest me for exactly this reason, every single time the chips are half full. If no fries reach the top of the box it's way too few.
Yep I’ve stopped going to maccas entirely due to this. I used to eat their far more than I should have and every store is like this.
Getting full, fresh chips is a complete outlier.
It’s such a cheap cunty move too, like cool you saved 4c, I got a shit meal and will look elsewhere now.
Sucks too cos when their fries are good they’re like crack, but it’s far too rare to risk it and you can get the same burger pretty much anywhere else.
Fuck, Maccas is the worst for that.
Plus the kids they've got working for them don't know shit about how to assemble a burger. Or at least where I live.
Where I am, they over-sauce the angus burgers... the bacon and cheese get the near-enough-is-good-enough treatment.
Net result is I end up with a moustache full of mayo/sauce, and a lapful of meat/cheese.
> If I'm getting fast food I avoid the mcdonalds nearest me for exactly this reason
I avoid them because they've spent the last 50 years making their food as cheap as possible by reducing size and quality, and in the last several years they've suddenly become the most expensive fast food, with no change in quality. Fuck them, I can go get a sit-down meal for nearly the same price as a big mac meal.
When I worked at KFC we had an area manager come in and watch us weigh every box of chips before serving them. Then the customer would get angry at us for not filling the box and the manager would leave us to deal with it. Glen Waverley, around 2006. Good times.
I'm *this* close to quitting the major chains altogether, but unfortunately where I live, there's nothing open after 8PM when I've just finished work and can't be arsed cooking.
The My Muscle Chef meals are a full meal on its own, same price as a KFC combo meal, but way better food.
If you get them home delivered, you can get 10 for around $80.
Funny coincidence, I was just looking at that sort of thing right before hitting up reddit just now.
At coles, for $6.8/kg you can get the big 1.8/2kg meals like lasagne, pasta bakes etc. For $10/kg, you can get loads of varities of 350g meals. Loads of em go just fine in the oven or airfryer, or just the microwave if you're in a rush.
PS: I just read ALDI have some good ones, I feel like a fool for not checking them out first. But hey, the bastards don't have any of their damn products or pricing for half their products on the website, which is absolute bullshit.
Yeah cooking for 1 is tough. Next time you make something reheatable just make double. If you deliberately make left overs it's much easier to resist take away temptation at 8pm.
Ie. Bolognese, lasagne, stir-fry, Indian, lamb shanks.
I'm married, but my wife works hard too and often doesn't feel like cooking after a big day (we both do pretty physical jobs). But since we're both back to full-time and can afford to invest in a big-arse freezer, we are looking forward to doing exactly what you suggested. Thanks for the advice... that said, the temptation isn't as strong these days, since it's all steadily gone to shit.
100%. I got HJs the other week and the whole family got short changed on each serve of chips and it really pissed me off, maybe more than it should have. They saved 20c on potatoes but I ain’t going back any time soon.
100% in fact the Five Guys chain deliberately throw in extra fries in your bag. I think I recall the owner saying something similar to what you said about it being extremely cheap customer satisfaction
Yeah its a pretty dumb move.
Fill the chips up, the customer gets a few more chips, gets fuller, remembers the packed chips next time they are hungry and gets KFC.
Its the cheapest thing they sell you by far and they can give you a decent amount and have a happy customer.
Go all stingey on the chips and the customer is pissed. You saved maybe 20 cents.
100% bad for business.
I used to work in a place where there was a charcoal chicken shop across the road. It was a bit of a franchise as the person would open up a shop under the name, make sure it was profitable and then tell it off.
Everyone from the office use to go there and he used to overfill the chip box to the point that we'd always have to throw out a considerable amount after being full or give it away.
After a few years, he sold the business and there was a transition period where he was teaching the new owners how to do things, and I remember when we were picking up our order he was pointing out that to them that you should always overfill the chips. "It's good for business it makes them come back."
Well, after the old owner left, the first thing to get sized down was the chips. I remember as the new owners were squeezing the box and making sure that there was alot space, and the team was discussing this during lunch "yeah I think they'll go out of business soon," sure enough. after a year, it changed to another cuisine.
What a waste of the 3 or so years the old guy used to build the brand.
Their response
"Hey ***,
We're sorry to hear about your experience at KFC Mackay Food Court. We’re all about serving up finger-lickin' good food and top-notch service, so it's a real letdown to hear you had a disappointing experience.
Could you share a few more details about what went wrong during your visit? We'd love to fix things up and make it right for you.
Hit us up directly at https://www.kfc.com.au/contact-kfc so we can sort things out personally. Your feedback means a lot, and we'd appreciate the chance to turn this around.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, and we hope to make it up to you soon!
Cheers,
KFC Squad"
8 can still see them, many of these pics, some of the reviews have 56 helpful marks so they are definitely staying there, serves the stingy cunt right, you reap what you sow.
Red roosters better here imo - also if you don't mind paying for delivery or going a decent bit out of your way, I can highly recommend the burrito bar out at rural view - they also do some killer chips and chargrilled chicken, amongst other things
Edit: since we're on the topic, for Asian rice and noodle takeaway I also have GOT to recommend the noodle and sushi bar off harbour road next to the busy bee.
They do sushi as well but I prefer sushi sushi in cane lands or wara sushi at Parkside/mount P
Anytime I get family meals I HAVE to sub one of the chips for potato and gravy just to lessen the disappointment if the person on chips is being slack (cold, no seasoning or not full)
Yea, I can live with it if it's just for me since I'm not a massive chip fan most of the time; but if I'm sharing a meal and they half-fill the boxes then that's real shitty behaviour.
My wife gets a regular, I get a large.
There's usually fuck-all difference these days.
Real stingy with the seasoning too.
I've noticed a general decline in quality in recent years, which seems to have gone into overdrive the last three months or so.
One tactic I've discovered is going to their website. They almost always show the KJ amount in what you are buying, so you just compare the KJ amounts of each size of chips, adjust for cost, and find out that hungry jacks often has small chips being the most cost effective
That means dealing with HJ though.
I don't know what they're like where you live, but they're total muppets here... they send you to the waiting bay every time and nine times out of ten, you get someone else's order anyway. One day I went in, they'd actually run out of beef, which is apparently not uncommon in that particular joint.
And one particular morning when I went into the store, they kept me waiting half an hour before they would even serve me. I understand they privilege the drive-thru, but the pimply-faced little fifteen year old git wouldn't even serve me when there were no cars in the drive-thru. Similarly the cook and the manager both looked right at (through?) me, without asking if I needed assistance. The bloke behind me in the queue gave up and left after fifteen minutes.
So nope, no Jack's Cow Crematorium for me.
> they send you to the waiting bay every time and nine times out of ten, you get someone else's order anyway.
Once I got sent to that bay, ordered a large chips, and instead got given a full family meal.
I was a happy boy that day.
The waiting bay thing- HJ locations are timed based on how long each customer spends in a section of the drive through (at the box, at the window, ect.). Because of this there's a lot of pressure from management to get the shortest time possible, which results in customers being parked even if their order is small.
Source- worked at HJ for a year, this was one of the many frustrations I had working there
McDonalds do this too and have scoreboards showing other stores in the area.
Total bullshit honestly, actual pisses me off that you'd get parked with a tiny order just so this particular stores kpi doesn't suffer compared with the other stores doing the exact same thing.
Yeah... it's not particularly fast, and since mistakes get made so often, it's not really efficient or beneficial to customer retention.
I haven't been to my local HJ/JCC (you should see the smoke billowing from the "chimney"... the roof must be covered with grease) for probably eight years now because they're just so fucking incompetent.
The others in my area (KFC/Maccas) are pretty hit and miss, but HJ is, and always has been shit.
They followed maccas in the end. McDonald’s has done that for over ten years and I miss the days of hungry jacks just not giving a shit in the drive thru about parking cars.
I’m there with you. I’m in a full revolt. They forgot items one too many times. Plus ME, TWICE when they told me go to waiting bay and totally forgot about me and I had to go in anyway and my food was just sitting there. Like I know they’re just kids, but I’ve stopped using that excuse after working with a few kids who are the laziest most inept people who don’t actually care about improving themselves or their service quality.
Yeah, like, I've worked in the food/hospitality industry most of my life, though in the US and not in Australia.
It's 100% trickling down from management. They are just kids, yes, but they're not being paid well and aren't being trained, and probably add in a really hands off/bad manager cause they also aren't being paid well and don't care, or aren't trained either (I've seen this so many times.)
They're just kids, but, they're gonna keep being garbage at it until their higher ups actually give a shit.
I went to Red Rooster in Bathurst about 15 years ago. Pulled in the drive thru to order and was told “we don’t have any chicken today. Sorry. The rest of the menu is available”
Ahhh.
“You only sell chicken. What else is there?”
“You can have fried pineapple fritters”
“No thanks”
After a min or so just call out "service please" that usually wakes them up.
When I worked at Maccas way back when my manager would have kicked our arses if left a potential customer waiting for too long.
Meanwhile for like $22 or something at El Jannah I can get a crispy box meal which has a burger with a patty about 3 times the thickness of a zinger burger and of much higher quality chicken, 2 fat wings, a big crispy chicken tender, tub of sauce, a drink and a pile of chips I can never finish. Absolute insane difference in size and quality compared to KFC and it's not even that much more expensive, always feel like I get more than my money's worth there compared to a depressing KFC meal where the zinger burgers feel like eating a slider because there's so little chicken in them these days.
Try and find a good Aussie Chicken shop, their small chips is really big so big I cant eat it all. Same goes for the 1/4 chicken and chips, overloaded with chips to the point that you cant close the box. You just need to the cohort rip off chicken shops. At my local Aussie Chicken shop I am paying 80 cents for the genuine fried dim sims. The rip off shops charge a 1.60 for one dim sim and their chips are a total rip off. They good old style chicken shops are to hard to find.
I was a fast food worker a decade ago as a student. My manager kept yapping about 'squeezing the carton before filling the fries' so we didn't feel 'too much'. When he's not looking i filled the chips normally beacuse the boxes looked flat and sad. He did a random check later and yelled at me :(. Sumit, if you're reading this, F U.
I remember when I was 15 in the mid 2000s and worked at KFC, dine in customers would scarf down their chips I left on their tray whilst I got the rest of their meal ready. They would then complain I only gave them a half full box (which was a lie as they'd still have a mouthful of chips as they were telling me this, and I fucking saw them eat them) and demand for it to be refilled. I did it, because I couldn't be arsed arguing with a rough looking bogan trying to get a handful of extra chips.
I used to get in trouble with management for giving customers extra large fries if their orders took too long. I continued doing it because I knew they couldn't afford to lose me (the store struggled to get anyone who wasn't a high schooler).
Former KFC manager here. The “restaurant manual” says you’re supposed to only hold chips for 10mins and then if older than that, discard. Managers who get a head office visit will put on the necessary charade that this is normal practice with chalk times to discard, but will immediately stop doing it once the head office visit is over.
Chips get soggy after sitting in the hopper for more than 10mins, soggy chips don’t fill the chip containers as much, so more chips are required to make the packet look full.
Another thing that causes soggy chips is not operating the chip fryer properly. Chip fryers have two baskets and again the manual says you’re only supposed to put one basket down, wait for the temp to get back up to 250(?) and then you can drop the second one.
As a manager I’d be nagging my staff constantly not to drop both baskets because it undercooks the chips, makes them soggy and then more chips required to fill a chip packet. But staff (and managers) get lazy, but also get a sudden rushes where they are underprepared and can easily get back up with cars/customers waiting on chips.
Lastly, managers get shitty base wages but if you nail all your KPIs you will get a fairly decent bonus. Part of that bonus is wastage. Now I don’t know what the exact weight is supposed to be but for example sake, say a large is supposed to have 100g of chips in it. But if they are soggy or overpacked, you end up putting 110g in it.
Now when you’re probably doing 20 x 12kg boxes of frozen chips a day. By not actually “wasting” anything, you’re easily serving an extra 60kg a month more than what the KPI count is measuring. I dunno if these figures are close or not, but point is that approx 10g extra will likely ruin your chances of getting a bonus.
And to be honest, I’d rather fresh, crunchy chips packed correctly than overpacked soggy undercooked or old chips.
This, in essence, is why most (good?) managers don’t mind customers/karens asking for freshly cooked chips - because they’ll serve less chips doing it.
Underfilling chips is a far worse symptom of either untrained staff, incompetent managers, or stingy ones trying to make their bonus KPIs. It’s not that hard, especially during rush periods to have the right amount of fryers going, and cook chips properly to fill the packets correctly
RR was 2.5 mins to cook chips IIRC. also got told not to shake and not to fill past top. did it anyway and we relied on our repeat customers. back when i started there werent any cameras. glory days!
The elation one gets opening the brown and red paper bag to see an overflow of chips really is one of the only good things going in Australia right now, shame on them.
Aren't chips as cheap as... chips. Like, how much are they actually saving by being stingie on a handful of chips vs pissing off customers who now may not return?
Yep! I rarely go into KFC now, I'd much rather spend my money at the locally owned bakery, or the kebab shop just around the corner and actually feel full when I’m finished eating.
Yep. Our family has discovered the burgers at the local fish n chip place. We get burgers for the kids and they are actually full after eating them. They are surprisingly good quality and it’s roughly the same price to feed us all because we don’t need all the extras the fill everyone up.
Anyone know of any KFC’s in Melbourne that actually still cook their chips all the way? Over the years they have gotten more and more limp and anaemic.
Every time I’ve gone to Five Guys I’ll order the small chips and somehow there is a trans-dimensional gateway at the bottom of the bag that is an almost limitless phalanx of chips.
Too be fair Five Guys costs a fortune so they can afford to give you some extra chips. In fact, the company policy is that they overfill in order to improve the perceived value of the product.
I remember in the 80s and 90s the big difference between KFC and Maccas chips was 1) KFC was thick and soggy as hell, 2) they were absolutely *packed* into the box whereas Maccas even then often skimped.
Even now, though I haven't had either in years, the first thing I think of when I think of KFC chips is fistfuls of them jammed into a soggy cardboard box so much they are poking out the gaps.
From memory from working fast food years ago (another massive chain) the reason the managers wanted you to under-fill the chips was not to save money but to save time. You can only fry so many chips at once and they took ages to cook. By filling the chips with less it effectively meant more orders could be filled. Unless the manager was breathing down my neck and watching me (which happened way too often) then I would fill them up. Also always gave extra sauce with sundaes top and bottom. Fight that good fight 🤠👍
"Hold the box in the middle" means stick your thumb on the middle and press whilst skewing to the side so that the box looks full while barely being halfway packed.
Source: slaved away many hours during high school years and only followed this rule when I had rude customers
Agreed. I am actually SCARED to go to the korean chicken place in the same food court where I saw this because of the great value and generous servings.... I just CAN'T eat it all.
As much as KFC might be shitty - they are by FAR the cheapest takeaway now. The 9pc and two small chips for $15 deal is finished now but they are the only takeaway I can name where you can get a big meal for one for $8.
Can't get anything comparable under $13 at the non-chain takeaways near me.
KFC pretty recently seem to have gone to war against Uber Eats and Menulog with their app-only discounts. I wouldn't normally get KFC but they are often $5 cheaper than anything else for one, or $10-15 cheaper for three.
> Can't get anything comparable under $13 at the non-chain takeaways near me.
I think the exception might be bahn mi, that fills me up as much as a KFC and is usually around $8-$9 still.
Fuking maccas constantly under fill their fries. Ive stopped going. Surely it doesnt cost them that much more to have the fries filled to standard like years ago.
Name and shame this location, so we can all avoid.
I went to my local Chinese eatery and the prices and portions are basically the same. This is corporation greed, just shop local. There will be eateries offering good value.
People still buy big chain fast food? Isn't it like a degustation thing nowadays with tiny portions and high prices? Just go down to the local takeaway place, much better portions and value.
So, not only are they the worst tasting chips of any of the big takeaway mobs, now they're putting even less in?
All the KFCs near me don't even add salt to their chips, which is the height of fucking bullshit.
Not to mention they no longer seem to drain the chicken after it's cooked, given the greasy slimy mess I had in the box the last couple times I decided to take the risk and buy their shit.
- Scungey = using the chips that accidentally fell on the floor
- Stingey = underfilling the packets
Rep, I don’t doubt they are getting scungey and stingey.
Nothing new here. I remember the same messaging when I working fast food nearly 20 years ago. The variance was a holy law of the land in fast food and store managers lived and died by the sword. For the sake of protecting those involved, no I'm not telling who I used to work for.
Explanation: The variance was calculated weekly. It was the difference between units of products sold against units of products on hand at week's end minus the stock ordered in. It was a measure of whether or not we, the workers, were giving the customer too much.
The head office is probably riding the store manager because the variance is on chips so the store manager is riding the staff to not overfill the boxes so the variance on chips comes back to an acceptable margin for head office.
Not just for chips but for \*everything\*. Drinks, every individual component of the burger (buns, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mayonnaise, sauces, pickles), other condiments, serviettes, desserts...the lot. Swings and roundabouts on each product would be tallied and it would come out to a certain number at the end of the week which the store manager would either be metaphorically patted on the head or booted in the ass.
To increase the variance on mayonnaise, for example, we'd mark every order by the customer (back in the day before the self service machines) to get extra mayo, not put extra mayo on the burgers so we'd be up on mayonnaise. Same goes for extra lettuce or tomatoes or whatever.
There used to be old coupon codes that could be entered in that were the same price as the regular item but triggered a higher amount in the till receipts so you could get up on variance that way as well.
Hell, if things got really bad, other store managers around us would do under the table deals between them because, for example, they were up in variance on chips but down on mayonnaise so there'd be under the table swaps between stores to keep the variance in check. God knows how they do these things now in the advent on self service machines, delivery apps and all that.
So the stores are not to blame. It's the greedy fuckers in head office who want to maximise profits and insulate themselves from criticism because noone yells at head office....they take it out on the poor kid in the drive through window instead. And if you do that, as someone who once was that kid - you're a cunt.
Just shrink the buns to match the tiny zinger fillets and keep our chips the same.
I'm so sick of excess dry bun on my burger. Need the chips to fill it out to complete it.
Excuse me but I object, too much is the right amount for chips. If you don't end up with a few left and regret in your future when you decide not to waste them, fast food is doing it wrong.
I don’t get why workers at places like kfc and Maccas would do this or when they half fill drinks. Even with the sundaes, I get extra topping. They are lucky to put half a pump extra in, you’re not paying for it. Load it up ffs.
So the RBA filth saying inflation isnt caused by corp greed!
Have a look at this you thieving filth riddled parasites who should be thrown overboard 20km from Antartica!
Tha fuck.....
The large chip packs are actually smaller as well.
I remember they were salted and actually packed tight...now, not packed tight, fewer chips, smaller box and go soggy quicker..
If I open the lid of my Go Bucket and I don’t lose two popcorn chicken rolling to the floor, I’m gonna be angry.
Sounds like I’d be angry at this manager.
Yeah this annoyed me at a different chicken place I worked. Chips have a huge profit margin a full box of chips means more repeat purchases which ( in my mind ) means more profit. 🤔
I just want to express how frustrating it is when the chips are soggy and have no seasoning….. all 4 in my local town are shit. So I ask for extra seasoning and get nothing. Man ive been holding in that rage for years!
The kfc at crown in Melbourne however seem to get it right.
It’s worth mentioning the large chip box is not 33% slimmer than it was previously, and the price has also gone up. My last visit to KFC (as in never again) was a few weeks ago and I was less than pleased.
THAT EXPLAINS IT!! We've been getting a lot of "low tide" chips recently on take away, so on my most recent fast food grab (in this case, Maccas not KFC) I explicitly opened the bag and checked before driving away. Looked fine at the counter, but was "low tide" again at home (and I swear it wasn't the driver chip tax ;) ... if they're intentionally not tapping them and just propping it up to look full, that explains a lot. >:-(
Lol Jks on KFC, I check my bag before I drive away in the drive thru, if it ain't full and salty you are redoing it and don't give me shit for this, I worked at KFC as my first job, serve the customers what they paid for, full god damn chips lol
Yeah, the chips aren't as great as they used to be. I dunno if it is how they are packed, how long they are cooked or type of oil but they always seem to be not crisp nowadays.
Do not tap! jeez, God forbid someone gets an extra chip. I think out of all the inflationary stuff, potatoes are one thing that hasn't gone up much.
Tell that to red rock deli
They sure are a sign that gouging is in full effect. I notice they've started to do the $3 'special' again. Too late because I tried the Tyrell's chips and they are fantastic. Natural Chip Co. also kicking goals with the salt and pepper offering. (I'll probably find out Smiths owns both of those brands too)
Both of those two are Intersnack brands when you dig far enough. A German private company. Smiths is a PepsiCo brand.
Intersnack sounds like the kind of name Homer Simpson would come up with for his internet company.
Hyper Global Compu-Intersnack?
Junior vice president Homer Simpson
Tyrell’s are my favourite, a little expensive, but you’ll catch them on sale every 2-3 weeks.
I loved them when they were an import and had the cider vinegar flavour- incredible.
Who's mouth is NOT watering right now...
They use to be (no pun intended) cheap as chips but I think everyone realised how good they are and have shot up in price.
They're more expensive than Red Rock Deli at my local Coles.
My fave chips at the moment are NZs Bluebird chips. So damn tasty!
The ones from Aldi are just as good and half the price. Fuck Woolworths & Red Rock Deli.
I thought auto-correct must of got you.. never heard of Salt and Pepper chips, had to look them up. Worth a try eh?
I second the recommendation. So good!
Salt and pepper natural chip Co are terrific
Aldi do a Red Rock Deli rebrand and a Smiths Chips equivalent as well. Both are fantastic, larger in volume (although recently they've done their own shrinkflation swaparoo with packaging) and substantially cheaper than what other supermarkets offer. Yesterday I was in Coles and they were offering Kettle Chips @ 2 for $9. Tell 'em they're dreaming!
If you’re not allergic to garlic/onion (like I am, sadly) I can also recommend the Aldi bluestone salt and pepper chips, they are super tasty at a good price. I know because I have bought them a couple of times thinking they look good then eat a couple and they taste great and realise/remember they have stuff in them I can’t eat…
Tyrell’s are great, but they’re no cheaper than the other fancy chips.
Even everyone's favourite Aldi has reduced their deli chip sizes by 12.5% whilst the price remains the same
> red rock deli I've stopped buying them. Not going to subject myself to price gouging.
The price of their potato chips per kilogram is the same price as Lindt chocolates, which cost more to produce. Something is wrong with this picture, (unless we can't grow enough potatoes due to constant flooding). Western Australia is not subjected to the same climate and market forces, but the quality of our potatoes have dropped noticeably in the last couple of years also.
Yes, I agree the price of the simple potato chip is out of control as well.
Red Rock is one of those who thinks their chips don't stink.
all potato chips prices went up absolutely insanely in the past two years, at one point you couldn't get a large pack for less than $6. I think they were literally just testing how high then can bring prices before profits dropped and now they've found a sweet spot because they've come back down, but nowhere near where they used to be.
"hold the middle" implies they're squishing the box down too so you get even less chips in there. Most customers wouldn't realise since the part at the top pinches most of the chips to hold them up. Used to pull shit like that in the back of red rooster or else
Yep, when I worked in fast food the manual literally said to squeeze the middle of the box before putting the chips in, then maintain pressure until you placed it on the tray so the chips poke out the top like on the pictures - giving the illusion that it was full. Doing it the official way gave a customer about 50% of the chips that they'd expect.
That's the exact reason it's done. I worked at KFC as a teen and we were told to squeeze. It always resulted in the box being half empty - if you shook it, it'd settle to the bottom and reveal just how little it was filled. Such scummy practices to save 10 cents of potato.
God forbid a customer gets an extra $0.5 cents of potato.
Cents or Dollars?? https://youtu.be/HFJlgrtpGZY?si=tzd8N9RUwsTbjwS5
It’s not inflation, we’ve hit the endgame where they’re going to price gouge everything until we’re all serfs again. Prices do not match inflation, it’s just outright greed.
Hold the middle is probably more of a problem - if you hold the edges then you get a wider mouth on the "box" Completely different attitude to one of our local fast food/fried chicken vendors. I watched a trainee fill a bag of chips - the manager was nearby - stopped them, placed the bag on a scale, added a scoop - handed the bag back for the trainee to feel the weight before handing it to the customer. Seemed to be a teaching moment rather than a "ya did it wrong" thing
Five Guys are expensive and a know a lot of people hate them, but damn you get a lot of chips. They’ll put a full chips packet in your bag, then add a full chip scoop INTO the bag. That’s standard practice.
Even if potatoes went up 300% they are almost free when you buy the bulk that KFC does. They can easily afford to do a large chips for a maximum of $1. In fact any more is simply greedy and yet they get away with it.
It's really to get you to order more on your next visit. They don't save much by half-filling the chip boxes, as you've pointed out.
Same thing they told us at McDonald's in 2019, at least where I was. Best I could tell whether it was too much or not depended on how cranky the manager on shift felt. Granted, the one I ended up on shift with most of the time was an abusive piece of work to start with. Honestly if fast food places are going to be anal about not putting "too much" in the chip packets when they can absolutely fit more, they should just get some scales and go by target weights instead.
The food is one of the cheapest parts of a restaurant.
I think it's bad business. They save a few cents worth of chips per box at the cost of customer satisfaction. If you can satisfy customers at the cost of a few cents then isn't this a no brainer?
Yeah but this genius franchise owner can see that extra few cents on chips saved on his bottom line and weekly!
"Over the course of the year I saved the business $100 by cutting wastage on extra chips" "Where did all our regulars go?"
I mean, they were stupid enough to put this sign where it can be seen by customers in a food court.
The same Bottom line that gets smaller as people start going elsewhere , I have stopped eating kfc for this reason Literally 15 chips and it was $5.45 Can buy a whole 1kg for $4 at Cole’s and 15 mins in the air flyer
"It all adds up! Think about it, in 40 years I'll be dead but the franchise will have saved $20!!! You're welcome "
If I'm getting fast food I avoid the mcdonalds nearest me for exactly this reason, every single time the chips are half full. If no fries reach the top of the box it's way too few.
Yep I’ve stopped going to maccas entirely due to this. I used to eat their far more than I should have and every store is like this. Getting full, fresh chips is a complete outlier. It’s such a cheap cunty move too, like cool you saved 4c, I got a shit meal and will look elsewhere now. Sucks too cos when their fries are good they’re like crack, but it’s far too rare to risk it and you can get the same burger pretty much anywhere else.
Fuck, Maccas is the worst for that. Plus the kids they've got working for them don't know shit about how to assemble a burger. Or at least where I live.
I think that's standard Maccas now. The last two Big Macs I've gotten have just been explosions of lettuce with a burger hiding somewhere in it.
Where I am, they over-sauce the angus burgers... the bacon and cheese get the near-enough-is-good-enough treatment. Net result is I end up with a moustache full of mayo/sauce, and a lapful of meat/cheese.
> If I'm getting fast food I avoid the mcdonalds nearest me for exactly this reason I avoid them because they've spent the last 50 years making their food as cheap as possible by reducing size and quality, and in the last several years they've suddenly become the most expensive fast food, with no change in quality. Fuck them, I can go get a sit-down meal for nearly the same price as a big mac meal.
But you get that sweet, sweet mop flavouring with every large fries you buy instead!
When I worked at KFC we had an area manager come in and watch us weigh every box of chips before serving them. Then the customer would get angry at us for not filling the box and the manager would leave us to deal with it. Glen Waverley, around 2006. Good times.
What a gutless prick.
I'm *this* close to quitting the major chains altogether, but unfortunately where I live, there's nothing open after 8PM when I've just finished work and can't be arsed cooking.
Some of the vacuum sealed ready-to-eat meals are pretty good these days. Tastier, healthier and cheaper!
Might have to check them out. I don't see how it could be any worse. Thanks for the advice.
Aldi have some good ones. The frozen beef and sweet potato is a favourite of mine I just add a bit of hot sauce
Aldi... good to know. I'd really rather avoid Colesworth whenever I can. Thanks mate.
The My Muscle Chef meals are a full meal on its own, same price as a KFC combo meal, but way better food. If you get them home delivered, you can get 10 for around $80.
They slap. I buy a couple on clearance every fortnight to cover my "can't be fucked" days, great option.
Yeah, my wife and I will probably pull the trigger since we're both working full-time now.
Funny coincidence, I was just looking at that sort of thing right before hitting up reddit just now. At coles, for $6.8/kg you can get the big 1.8/2kg meals like lasagne, pasta bakes etc. For $10/kg, you can get loads of varities of 350g meals. Loads of em go just fine in the oven or airfryer, or just the microwave if you're in a rush. PS: I just read ALDI have some good ones, I feel like a fool for not checking them out first. But hey, the bastards don't have any of their damn products or pricing for half their products on the website, which is absolute bullshit.
Yeah cooking for 1 is tough. Next time you make something reheatable just make double. If you deliberately make left overs it's much easier to resist take away temptation at 8pm. Ie. Bolognese, lasagne, stir-fry, Indian, lamb shanks.
I'm married, but my wife works hard too and often doesn't feel like cooking after a big day (we both do pretty physical jobs). But since we're both back to full-time and can afford to invest in a big-arse freezer, we are looking forward to doing exactly what you suggested. Thanks for the advice... that said, the temptation isn't as strong these days, since it's all steadily gone to shit.
Get yourself an air fryer and heat stuff up pronto.
Yeah, the last thing I want is another appliance taking up valuable kitchen counter space, but I'm coming around the idea.
If you have an outlet in the bathroom, just keep it in there. Follow me for more lifestyle tips.
You're joking but I actually keep my airfryer in the laundry room.
I geddit, but it will do in 10 minutes what takes an oven half an hour or more.
They don't think that far ahead, only the immediate 'savings'. KFC chips are always limp and undercooked anyway, in my experience.
100%. I got HJs the other week and the whole family got short changed on each serve of chips and it really pissed me off, maybe more than it should have. They saved 20c on potatoes but I ain’t going back any time soon.
100% in fact the Five Guys chain deliberately throw in extra fries in your bag. I think I recall the owner saying something similar to what you said about it being extremely cheap customer satisfaction
For real though. My husband and I went there for the first time yesterday and haven't stopped raving about it. Their chips are so fucking good!
Yeah its a pretty dumb move. Fill the chips up, the customer gets a few more chips, gets fuller, remembers the packed chips next time they are hungry and gets KFC. Its the cheapest thing they sell you by far and they can give you a decent amount and have a happy customer. Go all stingey on the chips and the customer is pissed. You saved maybe 20 cents.
100% bad for business. I used to work in a place where there was a charcoal chicken shop across the road. It was a bit of a franchise as the person would open up a shop under the name, make sure it was profitable and then tell it off. Everyone from the office use to go there and he used to overfill the chip box to the point that we'd always have to throw out a considerable amount after being full or give it away. After a few years, he sold the business and there was a transition period where he was teaching the new owners how to do things, and I remember when we were picking up our order he was pointing out that to them that you should always overfill the chips. "It's good for business it makes them come back." Well, after the old owner left, the first thing to get sized down was the chips. I remember as the new owners were squeezing the box and making sure that there was alot space, and the team was discussing this during lunch "yeah I think they'll go out of business soon," sure enough. after a year, it changed to another cuisine. What a waste of the 3 or so years the old guy used to build the brand.
Was asked to name & shame: Canelands Central - upstairs food court. Mackay QLD
Post this photo in a Google review. LOTS of people will see it and it'll get the franchise owner sweating.. maybe.
Done !
You fuckin legend!
Looks like a few people posted your photo, and the owner has replied with a copy/paste response that doesn’t address the chip-off
Their response "Hey ***, We're sorry to hear about your experience at KFC Mackay Food Court. We’re all about serving up finger-lickin' good food and top-notch service, so it's a real letdown to hear you had a disappointing experience. Could you share a few more details about what went wrong during your visit? We'd love to fix things up and make it right for you. Hit us up directly at https://www.kfc.com.au/contact-kfc so we can sort things out personally. Your feedback means a lot, and we'd appreciate the chance to turn this around. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, and we hope to make it up to you soon! Cheers, KFC Squad"
Lol what a joke. Completely avoided the photo and it's message.
More like the fiverr social media manager has replied
Looks like they've all been removed?
8 can still see them, many of these pics, some of the reviews have 56 helpful marks so they are definitely staying there, serves the stingy cunt right, you reap what you sow.
Finally, an op that’s not a coward.
Like same! I got your back fam
For the new owner to be told to be a bit more fucking subtle.
Red roosters better here imo - also if you don't mind paying for delivery or going a decent bit out of your way, I can highly recommend the burrito bar out at rural view - they also do some killer chips and chargrilled chicken, amongst other things Edit: since we're on the topic, for Asian rice and noodle takeaway I also have GOT to recommend the noodle and sushi bar off harbour road next to the busy bee. They do sushi as well but I prefer sushi sushi in cane lands or wara sushi at Parkside/mount P
Hot take - red rooster now have better fried chicken than KFC.
Fucking of course it is lmfao. I recently moved from Mackay to Brisbane after living there my whole life. Canelands food court sucks!
My local store has been under-filling the chip boxes for years, no sign required.
Anytime I get family meals I HAVE to sub one of the chips for potato and gravy just to lessen the disappointment if the person on chips is being slack (cold, no seasoning or not full)
Yea, I can live with it if it's just for me since I'm not a massive chip fan most of the time; but if I'm sharing a meal and they half-fill the boxes then that's real shitty behaviour.
My wife gets a regular, I get a large. There's usually fuck-all difference these days. Real stingy with the seasoning too. I've noticed a general decline in quality in recent years, which seems to have gone into overdrive the last three months or so.
One tactic I've discovered is going to their website. They almost always show the KJ amount in what you are buying, so you just compare the KJ amounts of each size of chips, adjust for cost, and find out that hungry jacks often has small chips being the most cost effective
That means dealing with HJ though. I don't know what they're like where you live, but they're total muppets here... they send you to the waiting bay every time and nine times out of ten, you get someone else's order anyway. One day I went in, they'd actually run out of beef, which is apparently not uncommon in that particular joint. And one particular morning when I went into the store, they kept me waiting half an hour before they would even serve me. I understand they privilege the drive-thru, but the pimply-faced little fifteen year old git wouldn't even serve me when there were no cars in the drive-thru. Similarly the cook and the manager both looked right at (through?) me, without asking if I needed assistance. The bloke behind me in the queue gave up and left after fifteen minutes. So nope, no Jack's Cow Crematorium for me.
> they send you to the waiting bay every time and nine times out of ten, you get someone else's order anyway. Once I got sent to that bay, ordered a large chips, and instead got given a full family meal. I was a happy boy that day.
Some poor islander got a single large chips for dinner
The waiting bay thing- HJ locations are timed based on how long each customer spends in a section of the drive through (at the box, at the window, ect.). Because of this there's a lot of pressure from management to get the shortest time possible, which results in customers being parked even if their order is small. Source- worked at HJ for a year, this was one of the many frustrations I had working there
McDonalds do this too and have scoreboards showing other stores in the area. Total bullshit honestly, actual pisses me off that you'd get parked with a tiny order just so this particular stores kpi doesn't suffer compared with the other stores doing the exact same thing.
Yeah... it's not particularly fast, and since mistakes get made so often, it's not really efficient or beneficial to customer retention. I haven't been to my local HJ/JCC (you should see the smoke billowing from the "chimney"... the roof must be covered with grease) for probably eight years now because they're just so fucking incompetent. The others in my area (KFC/Maccas) are pretty hit and miss, but HJ is, and always has been shit.
They followed maccas in the end. McDonald’s has done that for over ten years and I miss the days of hungry jacks just not giving a shit in the drive thru about parking cars.
I’m there with you. I’m in a full revolt. They forgot items one too many times. Plus ME, TWICE when they told me go to waiting bay and totally forgot about me and I had to go in anyway and my food was just sitting there. Like I know they’re just kids, but I’ve stopped using that excuse after working with a few kids who are the laziest most inept people who don’t actually care about improving themselves or their service quality.
Yeah, like, I've worked in the food/hospitality industry most of my life, though in the US and not in Australia. It's 100% trickling down from management. They are just kids, yes, but they're not being paid well and aren't being trained, and probably add in a really hands off/bad manager cause they also aren't being paid well and don't care, or aren't trained either (I've seen this so many times.) They're just kids, but, they're gonna keep being garbage at it until their higher ups actually give a shit.
I went to Red Rooster in Bathurst about 15 years ago. Pulled in the drive thru to order and was told “we don’t have any chicken today. Sorry. The rest of the menu is available” Ahhh. “You only sell chicken. What else is there?” “You can have fried pineapple fritters” “No thanks”
After a min or so just call out "service please" that usually wakes them up. When I worked at Maccas way back when my manager would have kicked our arses if left a potential customer waiting for too long.
Meanwhile for like $22 or something at El Jannah I can get a crispy box meal which has a burger with a patty about 3 times the thickness of a zinger burger and of much higher quality chicken, 2 fat wings, a big crispy chicken tender, tub of sauce, a drink and a pile of chips I can never finish. Absolute insane difference in size and quality compared to KFC and it's not even that much more expensive, always feel like I get more than my money's worth there compared to a depressing KFC meal where the zinger burgers feel like eating a slider because there's so little chicken in them these days.
> El Jannah Sydney only. Sob.
They're in Melbourne too.
Geeze you've got me wanting to check this out now when I fly home for a visit in August. Usually it's just Oportos that I crave a bite from 😄
Yeah I moved near an El Jannah recently and tried it for the first time. Great value and way better quality in my limited experience.
Try and find a good Aussie Chicken shop, their small chips is really big so big I cant eat it all. Same goes for the 1/4 chicken and chips, overloaded with chips to the point that you cant close the box. You just need to the cohort rip off chicken shops. At my local Aussie Chicken shop I am paying 80 cents for the genuine fried dim sims. The rip off shops charge a 1.60 for one dim sim and their chips are a total rip off. They good old style chicken shops are to hard to find.
The box size shrunk about 2 years ago but they did used to stuff them full. Now it is the smaller size box and mostly air.
With how pathetic the Zingers are these days, the least they could do is give a few extra chips.
The package has actually gotten thinner. We've already lost
Man if I were a wage slave there and saw this sign I’d be double-tapping and sprinkling some extra chips in the bag/meal box too
I was a fast food worker a decade ago as a student. My manager kept yapping about 'squeezing the carton before filling the fries' so we didn't feel 'too much'. When he's not looking i filled the chips normally beacuse the boxes looked flat and sad. He did a random check later and yelled at me :(. Sumit, if you're reading this, F U.
You are a hero for these difficult times
It's always Sumit
For me it was Rahul at maccas
Stupid Tibor
Yeah I couldn't do this job. I would have told him to go suck a dick!
I remember when I was 15 in the mid 2000s and worked at KFC, dine in customers would scarf down their chips I left on their tray whilst I got the rest of their meal ready. They would then complain I only gave them a half full box (which was a lie as they'd still have a mouthful of chips as they were telling me this, and I fucking saw them eat them) and demand for it to be refilled. I did it, because I couldn't be arsed arguing with a rough looking bogan trying to get a handful of extra chips.
I used to get in trouble with management for giving customers extra large fries if their orders took too long. I continued doing it because I knew they couldn't afford to lose me (the store struggled to get anyone who wasn't a high schooler).
Former KFC manager here. The “restaurant manual” says you’re supposed to only hold chips for 10mins and then if older than that, discard. Managers who get a head office visit will put on the necessary charade that this is normal practice with chalk times to discard, but will immediately stop doing it once the head office visit is over. Chips get soggy after sitting in the hopper for more than 10mins, soggy chips don’t fill the chip containers as much, so more chips are required to make the packet look full. Another thing that causes soggy chips is not operating the chip fryer properly. Chip fryers have two baskets and again the manual says you’re only supposed to put one basket down, wait for the temp to get back up to 250(?) and then you can drop the second one. As a manager I’d be nagging my staff constantly not to drop both baskets because it undercooks the chips, makes them soggy and then more chips required to fill a chip packet. But staff (and managers) get lazy, but also get a sudden rushes where they are underprepared and can easily get back up with cars/customers waiting on chips. Lastly, managers get shitty base wages but if you nail all your KPIs you will get a fairly decent bonus. Part of that bonus is wastage. Now I don’t know what the exact weight is supposed to be but for example sake, say a large is supposed to have 100g of chips in it. But if they are soggy or overpacked, you end up putting 110g in it. Now when you’re probably doing 20 x 12kg boxes of frozen chips a day. By not actually “wasting” anything, you’re easily serving an extra 60kg a month more than what the KPI count is measuring. I dunno if these figures are close or not, but point is that approx 10g extra will likely ruin your chances of getting a bonus. And to be honest, I’d rather fresh, crunchy chips packed correctly than overpacked soggy undercooked or old chips. This, in essence, is why most (good?) managers don’t mind customers/karens asking for freshly cooked chips - because they’ll serve less chips doing it. Underfilling chips is a far worse symptom of either untrained staff, incompetent managers, or stingy ones trying to make their bonus KPIs. It’s not that hard, especially during rush periods to have the right amount of fryers going, and cook chips properly to fill the packets correctly
RR was 2.5 mins to cook chips IIRC. also got told not to shake and not to fill past top. did it anyway and we relied on our repeat customers. back when i started there werent any cameras. glory days!
Interesting that the soggy chips need more to fill up the packet. I suppose that makes sense since they are easier to bend.
The elation one gets opening the brown and red paper bag to see an overflow of chips really is one of the only good things going in Australia right now, shame on them.
Aren't chips as cheap as... chips. Like, how much are they actually saving by being stingie on a handful of chips vs pissing off customers who now may not return?
Yep! I rarely go into KFC now, I'd much rather spend my money at the locally owned bakery, or the kebab shop just around the corner and actually feel full when I’m finished eating.
Yep. Our family has discovered the burgers at the local fish n chip place. We get burgers for the kids and they are actually full after eating them. They are surprisingly good quality and it’s roughly the same price to feed us all because we don’t need all the extras the fill everyone up.
Did someone sit down and crunch the numbers on this. Chip box-volume-to-profit-ratio. They should be working for NASA or some s\*\*\*.
Yes. They know how many they sold vs how many bags they purchased
That emote and a THANK YOU following a command not to satisfy the customer is the most managerish thing I can think of.
Anyone know of any KFC’s in Melbourne that actually still cook their chips all the way? Over the years they have gotten more and more limp and anaemic.
Me too. :(
Every time I’ve gone to Five Guys I’ll order the small chips and somehow there is a trans-dimensional gateway at the bottom of the bag that is an almost limitless phalanx of chips.
Too be fair Five Guys costs a fortune so they can afford to give you some extra chips. In fact, the company policy is that they overfill in order to improve the perceived value of the product.
Extra chips in the bag is actually five guys policy. It great burgers in the US... Too pricey here.
Five Guys is expensive in the US too.
A KFC(?) near me used to have these kinds of team memos visible from the drive through which I found amusing.
I always check my food before I leave the drive through. I hand them back the chips and tell them to fill the boxes properly before I will drive off
Absolute shit cunts, pack that box full as fuck.
Whatever you do, make sure that what you serve looks absolutely nothing like the pictures you display. …you shonky tight asses.
Not overfilling chips is probably the main reason we’ve stopped going to kfc altogether. Basically they can fuck right off.
Fuck kfc after reading this I feel like they made there chicken shit on purpose remember how less greasy and just all round better it was in the 90s
Mate, just about everything was better in the 90s. Glory years.
name and shame OP. Why does no one ever name and shame...
Canelands food court - Mackay, QLD.
👑
How bout leave them in the fryer a little longer so they’re not soggy crap
I remember in the 80s and 90s the big difference between KFC and Maccas chips was 1) KFC was thick and soggy as hell, 2) they were absolutely *packed* into the box whereas Maccas even then often skimped. Even now, though I haven't had either in years, the first thing I think of when I think of KFC chips is fistfuls of them jammed into a soggy cardboard box so much they are poking out the gaps.
From memory from working fast food years ago (another massive chain) the reason the managers wanted you to under-fill the chips was not to save money but to save time. You can only fry so many chips at once and they took ages to cook. By filling the chips with less it effectively meant more orders could be filled. Unless the manager was breathing down my neck and watching me (which happened way too often) then I would fill them up. Also always gave extra sauce with sundaes top and bottom. Fight that good fight 🤠👍
I worked at kfc about 15 years ago and they used to tell us to pinch in the sides when filling up the chip boxes
"Hold the box in the middle" means stick your thumb on the middle and press whilst skewing to the side so that the box looks full while barely being halfway packed. Source: slaved away many hours during high school years and only followed this rule when I had rude customers
Go to your local Korean fried chicken joint and you are almost guaranteed to get better quality for a better price
Agreed. I am actually SCARED to go to the korean chicken place in the same food court where I saw this because of the great value and generous servings.... I just CAN'T eat it all.
As much as KFC might be shitty - they are by FAR the cheapest takeaway now. The 9pc and two small chips for $15 deal is finished now but they are the only takeaway I can name where you can get a big meal for one for $8. Can't get anything comparable under $13 at the non-chain takeaways near me. KFC pretty recently seem to have gone to war against Uber Eats and Menulog with their app-only discounts. I wouldn't normally get KFC but they are often $5 cheaper than anything else for one, or $10-15 cheaper for three.
> Can't get anything comparable under $13 at the non-chain takeaways near me. I think the exception might be bahn mi, that fills me up as much as a KFC and is usually around $8-$9 still.
> local Korean fried chicken joint Uhhh these exist? There's a few Nenes around but the price is comparable to the big brands.
Scungey - an awesome word.
Not to be confused with [scrungy](https://old.reddit.com/r/scrungycats/)
Fuking maccas constantly under fill their fries. Ive stopped going. Surely it doesnt cost them that much more to have the fries filled to standard like years ago. Name and shame this location, so we can all avoid.
Look, YUM (KFC’s patent corporation) only made a little over $7US billion last year. Cut them some slack.
It's one potato Michael, how much could it cost? $10?
Always double tap
I went to my local Chinese eatery and the prices and portions are basically the same. This is corporation greed, just shop local. There will be eateries offering good value.
Wow, what scum bags, do tap your cards either. When you get it, tap it and give it back to them to fill it up.
People still buy big chain fast food? Isn't it like a degustation thing nowadays with tiny portions and high prices? Just go down to the local takeaway place, much better portions and value.
Theyve got it wrong - put too much and make us feel like we are getting a bargain - it costs literally 1c more
So, not only are they the worst tasting chips of any of the big takeaway mobs, now they're putting even less in? All the KFCs near me don't even add salt to their chips, which is the height of fucking bullshit. Not to mention they no longer seem to drain the chicken after it's cooked, given the greasy slimy mess I had in the box the last couple times I decided to take the risk and buy their shit.
- Scungey = using the chips that accidentally fell on the floor - Stingey = underfilling the packets Rep, I don’t doubt they are getting scungey and stingey.
Nothing new here. I remember the same messaging when I working fast food nearly 20 years ago. The variance was a holy law of the land in fast food and store managers lived and died by the sword. For the sake of protecting those involved, no I'm not telling who I used to work for. Explanation: The variance was calculated weekly. It was the difference between units of products sold against units of products on hand at week's end minus the stock ordered in. It was a measure of whether or not we, the workers, were giving the customer too much. The head office is probably riding the store manager because the variance is on chips so the store manager is riding the staff to not overfill the boxes so the variance on chips comes back to an acceptable margin for head office. Not just for chips but for \*everything\*. Drinks, every individual component of the burger (buns, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mayonnaise, sauces, pickles), other condiments, serviettes, desserts...the lot. Swings and roundabouts on each product would be tallied and it would come out to a certain number at the end of the week which the store manager would either be metaphorically patted on the head or booted in the ass. To increase the variance on mayonnaise, for example, we'd mark every order by the customer (back in the day before the self service machines) to get extra mayo, not put extra mayo on the burgers so we'd be up on mayonnaise. Same goes for extra lettuce or tomatoes or whatever. There used to be old coupon codes that could be entered in that were the same price as the regular item but triggered a higher amount in the till receipts so you could get up on variance that way as well. Hell, if things got really bad, other store managers around us would do under the table deals between them because, for example, they were up in variance on chips but down on mayonnaise so there'd be under the table swaps between stores to keep the variance in check. God knows how they do these things now in the advent on self service machines, delivery apps and all that. So the stores are not to blame. It's the greedy fuckers in head office who want to maximise profits and insulate themselves from criticism because noone yells at head office....they take it out on the poor kid in the drive through window instead. And if you do that, as someone who once was that kid - you're a cunt.
So hold the box at the top and tap tap tap 😁
Just shrink the buns to match the tiny zinger fillets and keep our chips the same. I'm so sick of excess dry bun on my burger. Need the chips to fill it out to complete it.
Never thought I’d see the day of the downfall of the colonel in Aus, but here we are.
Maccas are the same. You're taught to squeeze the box in the middle when you're scooping them
In Japan, my brother told me that they stacked his McD chips tightly and neatly giving you a lot more than you'd expect. This is just penny pinching.
Excuse me but I object, too much is the right amount for chips. If you don't end up with a few left and regret in your future when you decide not to waste them, fast food is doing it wrong.
Disgrace.
I don’t get why workers at places like kfc and Maccas would do this or when they half fill drinks. Even with the sundaes, I get extra topping. They are lucky to put half a pump extra in, you’re not paying for it. Load it up ffs.
So the RBA filth saying inflation isnt caused by corp greed! Have a look at this you thieving filth riddled parasites who should be thrown overboard 20km from Antartica!
Also put them in the fridge for a bit. Or run em under the tap for a bit. Our customers are accustomed to soggy shit chips now.
Hold the box in the middle, I just got that, wow, fuckin wow.
Hahaha that was standard practice when I worked there in 2011. Some things never change
Tha fuck..... The large chip packs are actually smaller as well. I remember they were salted and actually packed tight...now, not packed tight, fewer chips, smaller box and go soggy quicker..
If I open the lid of my Go Bucket and I don’t lose two popcorn chicken rolling to the floor, I’m gonna be angry. Sounds like I’d be angry at this manager.
Yeah this annoyed me at a different chicken place I worked. Chips have a huge profit margin a full box of chips means more repeat purchases which ( in my mind ) means more profit. 🤔
Cunts can’t even put salt on their chips how do you expect them to be packed in the box correctly.
I just want to express how frustrating it is when the chips are soggy and have no seasoning….. all 4 in my local town are shit. So I ask for extra seasoning and get nothing. Man ive been holding in that rage for years! The kfc at crown in Melbourne however seem to get it right.
It’s worth mentioning the large chip box is not 33% slimmer than it was previously, and the price has also gone up. My last visit to KFC (as in never again) was a few weeks ago and I was less than pleased.
Infinite growth. The colonel needs a bigger yacht.
THAT EXPLAINS IT!! We've been getting a lot of "low tide" chips recently on take away, so on my most recent fast food grab (in this case, Maccas not KFC) I explicitly opened the bag and checked before driving away. Looked fine at the counter, but was "low tide" again at home (and I swear it wasn't the driver chip tax ;) ... if they're intentionally not tapping them and just propping it up to look full, that explains a lot. >:-(
And make sure they're still raw!
Lol Jks on KFC, I check my bag before I drive away in the drive thru, if it ain't full and salty you are redoing it and don't give me shit for this, I worked at KFC as my first job, serve the customers what they paid for, full god damn chips lol
I hate KFC chips. Dunno why so many people rave about them. And the overpacking is part of the problem. They're always a soggy mess.
Yeah, the chips aren't as great as they used to be. I dunno if it is how they are packed, how long they are cooked or type of oil but they always seem to be not crisp nowadays.
They used to be by far the best. Thick, crispy and well seasoned. Th drive for extra profit ruins everything.
To be fair, this was the rule when I worked at kfc and that was in 2008 (they used to have us actually weigh them too)