from The Washington Post via MSN
America is running low on chicken. Blame covid-19, a sandwich craze and huge appetite for wings.
by Reis Thebault
Randy Estrada holds up his Popeyes chicken sandwich, shortly after the fast food chain introduced the menu item in 2019, which The Washington Post dubbed the Year of the Chicken Sandwich. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
It’s not like we weren’t warned. The doomsayers predicted this months ago: “A MASSIVE CHICKEN WING SHORTAGE IS BREWING,” blared the headline of one trade publication in early February.
But it turned out to be so much worse.
Bloomberg News, on Thursday: “Fried-Chicken Craze Is Causing U.S. to Run Low on Poultry.”
In other words, not just wings, but chicken in general. Or, as Bojangles put it in a recent tweet about their tenders: “we’re experiencing a system-wide shortage 🙁 But they will be back soon!”
It seems the poultry paucity has arrived, heralded by a series of fast-food executives describing in earnings calls their stores’ struggles to stock enough chicken — nuggets, tenders, wings, patties, all shapes and sizes — to keep pace with legions of peckish Americans.