Recently there has been some social media posting in Trinidad and Tobago calling for a boycott of Kentucky Fried Chicken after they raised their prices.

Of course, it wasn’t just about prices. The trouble was that Prestige Holdings, the company that runs KFC locally, had announced 56% more profits right before they raised the prices.

I only mention this because I needed something to write about while I’m dealing with the silicon insult. It’s hard to say whether the boycott has been effective in any way. There are plenty of opinions floating around, and Prestige Holdings is being pretty quiet about it. There was some drama about someone who was apparently not a member of Prestige Holdings saying some things. That blew over.

Instead of wild speculation, which there is plenty of on social media, I’ll just give my opinion.

I don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and haven’t for at least 10 years. This was not a boycott on my part. I simply remember when I felt I got value for spending money at KFC, and that time has long passed. If I feel like fried chicken, there are other options, and I daresay better. Royal Castle immediately comes to mind, as does Popeyes. Church’s Chicken is around too.

Yet it’s not a very big part of my diet. Fried chicken is a rarity in my diet. The only people who care about the raised prices are the people who buy from them, and given the value of the meals as well as the state of customer service and cleanliness of locations, there is much to be desired.

There was a time when the biscuit came with a meal. That went away. I think I first started turning away from certain fast food restaurants when they started pushing Pepsi products at me, which I don’t like. From there, the size of chicken pieces fell to pigeon sized pieces. The corn, which we used to get a small cob of, we now get 1/3rd of. The customer service ranges from ‘may I take your order’ to a scale of ‘why are you bothering me?’.

Prestige Holdings also has other restaurants, like Starbucks, Subway, Pizza Hut, and TGIF. They aren’t in the health food business. They never claimed to be.

Starbucks has some of the best customer service in Trinidad and Tobago, but the worst prices for coffee – people often go there for the brand and experience. Subway is a staple, but the sandwiches have diminished in value for the price with the incredible shrinking subs. Pizza Hut I haven’t been to in some time, and TGIF is basically a place where people drink overpriced drinks and eat imported meals heated in a local restaurant.

The truth is that there’s no real value added in any of their restaurants, but suddenly, because they showed increased prices a day or two after they bragged of their increased profits, people became upset.

If that seems silly, on the surface it is. However, the role KFC plays in Trinidad and Tobago is largely for the ‘on the go’ crowd, which includes children who have traveled to school and people who didn’t pack a lunch when they went to work. In that regard, they do provide value. Is it a good value or a bad value? That’s subjective. Given the opportunity, I’d prefer other fare.

It all seems silly to me. There doesn’t need to be a call to boycott. People just have to decide where the value is for them.

KFC has lost it’s value to me. In the 1980s, going to KFC was a treat, and it was something worth doing occasionally. Now, with more flour than chicken and a bigger bottom line than value, everyone does have to make up their own minds.

I remember the value I used to see. It’s simply not there for me, but people still buy it and that would indicate that there is some value to them. Value, though, is dictated by choices, and with the restaurants of Prestige Holdings as ubiquitous as they are, it’s a matter of who has the larger net.

Consider that in 2021, ‘KFC Opened Their 60th Restaurant in Most Penetrated Market‘, a most Freudian headline without substantiation in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. It reads like an advertisement. However, the Trinidad Express got the substantiation in “More KFC outlets per person in T&T compared to any other country“, which reads less like an advertorial, almost resembling a press release but for the sweat of someone who put things between the quotations from the press release.

Maybe we should be asking why people are making that choice rather than calling for a boycott. There are generations who don’t know that there were once bigger pieces of chicken, bigger pieces of corn, etc.

Or, maybe it’s just the way it is. If you find better value for your money, get it.

If you need better choices, find them. Your cardiologist may be upset that they won’t get that yacht, but you can’t always do things to make your doctors wealthy.