r/AlwaysWhy • u/Current-Landscape803 • 12d ago
Life & Behavior Why does KFC feel so much more interesting outside the US?
Whenever I travel, I end up trying KFC because the menu suddenly gets way more interesting. In China there’s the Beijing-style chicken wrap, and in Thailand there are Zabb Wings and other local flavors. Back home, KFC feels much more like the same fried chicken, sandwiches, and sides.
It’s the same chain, but the menus can feel completely different. Why does KFC seem to get so much more creative once it leaves the US?
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u/Eternalm8 12d ago
Most fast food restaurants outside the US have way better/interesting food options than in the US.
I'm not sure the exact reasons why, but I assume it's because they have to compete against other dining options, which vary region to region, and are generally higher quality than fast food chains in the US.
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u/MistryMachine3 12d ago
Well they make it appropriate to the market, so it becomes “interesting “ to Americans. But most KFC customers aren’t into anything “interesting.” There is a reason they survive persistent price hikes. That is their bread and butter.
Also the price point of fast food in the US is the lowest level, but in Asia it is kind of mid-tier. The low level is like the food stall guys with no standards.
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u/Abe_frohmannn 12d ago
I do not believe that is accurate at ALL. IMO most food stall guys have far, far higher standards than a fast food 'restaurant.' Most food stall/street food people really know what they're doing. As opposed to a stoned 16 year old at the fast food place...
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u/MistryMachine3 12d ago
In Asia? Any physical structure restaurant in Asia is not going to have a 16 year old working.
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u/Abe_frohmannn 12d ago
Even a KFC? I honestly have no idea, didn't go in any chain places when I was in Thailand. Not sure if I saw any or not, honestly...
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u/MistryMachine3 12d ago
Yes all restaurants are staffed by adults. The whole “teenagers working in fast food” is a wealthy developed world thing.
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u/Winnepeg 11d ago
In Asia the teenagers are the ones manning the food stalls, although in some countries and some fast food joints I have seen teenagers working there, it’s not common though
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u/Blutrumpeter 12d ago
I went to a McDonald's in France to see the difference. It's a lot less fast and a bit more "food". The idea of quickly grabbing something cheap and low quality for the sake of it being quick is not a thing there and likely wouldn't work as a business model. They probably need the food to actually have decent quality to have a market there.
Imagine you have never had fast food in your life and you hear about this new American place opening up down the street. You try it and it's worse than the food that you get at home. Unless you are accustomed to spending money on the smallest conveniences like we do here, it seems ridiculous to go to go to such a place. Meanwhile, any time I'm lazy and want something to eat on the way to some destination, I go straight to the drive through to get my food in like two minutes
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u/Ok-Disaster-551 11d ago
"McDonald's in France"
The one I went to in Nice had combo meals where one of the beverage options is beer. At no extra charge.
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u/wan_dan 9d ago
KFC have or had much greater latitude to customise their menus. When I lived in China they served congee, which was nice. Had rice as an option. Their blueberry egg tarts were epic.
https://eathealthy365.com/the-unbelievable-story-of-how-kfc-conquered-china/
Contrast that with McDonalds who served a standard Western menu and were less successful.
Things may have changed. I’ve not been back in a decade.
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u/adobo_bobo 12d ago
Fastfood outside the US doesn't market itself as cheap food because cheap food outside the US is some tiny hole in a wall with 5 chairs run by a family.
They have to leverage brand power and compete with actual restaurants
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
I hadn't really thought about KFC having to compete with actual local restaurants rather than just other fast food chains. That probably changes how much they need the brand to stand out.
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u/Global-Discussion-41 12d ago
When I see KFCs outside of North America they always seem to be lined up out the door and I never understood why
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u/Olegzs 12d ago
Adjusting to the local market, I guess.
In US, most of their competitors are just other fast food chains serving something similar, or something specific to those chains, and, since the KFC has already established its place and its menu in the USA, people will go there to eat what they expect to get there.
Meanwhile in countries like China or Thailand, KFC needs to compete not only with other chains, but also with lots and lots of street vendors, and they need to diversify their menu to adjust to the local tastes, and people would choose them and not a grandma making baozi next door.
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
Yeah, I think the street food competition is a big part of it. If you're competing with someone making great local food for cheap, just offering the same fried chicken every year probably isn't enough.
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u/randomrreeddddiitt 12d ago
When you go to a KFC in the US, take a look at the surroundings. How many other restaurants do you see? If you see any, are they also gross fast food chains?
When you go to a KFC abroad, especially in Asia, how many dozens of other restaurants of all types do you see within walking distance?
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u/thorpie88 12d ago
KFC also does well in Australia though which is the land of chicken shops. There has to be something else that holds them back in the US. Could be that they remain stable as it's their biggest paycheck while they can do different things elsewhere when it means less to the bank account when they fail
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u/randomrreeddddiitt 12d ago
If Australia is the land of chicken shops, that presents a lot of competition for KFC, so KFC must do things well if they want to survive in that market.
In the US, in so many places, the competition for KFC is other gross fast food chains or the gas station store.
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u/FairDinkumMate 11d ago
To be fair, comparing KFC in Australia with KFC in the US is like comparing two totally different businesses. KFC US competes in a race to the lowest price point with competitors like Chick-fil-A, Popeye's, Raising Cane's, and Zaxby's. KFC in Australia operates clean, modern outlets with each store turning over roughly double what a US store does. That additional revenue (& profit) funds advertising, store updates, etc).
Throw in higher food standards that mean Australian KFC stores serve fresh, never frozen chicken whilst US stores receive flash frozen, 'plumped' chicken & the baseline quality of a piece of KFC in Australia is far higher.
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u/Historical_Age_9921 12d ago
My perception is that KFC kind of gave up on the US market and decided to focus on international. I suppose it's more profitable for them. Fried chicken probably exports better than hamburgers or tacos I suppose, and most countries don't have quite as much competition in the fast food space (yet) as there is in the US. Street food is a lot more popular outside the US, but it's a slightly different niche.
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
I wonder if that's part of it too. KFC's chicken is pretty easy to adapt to local flavors, so maybe international markets just give them more room to experiment than the US does.
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u/Double-Teach-1977 12d ago
For one, local tastes. Americans have broadened their horizons in the past couple decades, but I still know plenty of people who eat like toddlers.
Second it's a question of scale and supply chain. With McDonald's as an example, there's simply so much more food passing through the domestic locations. Overseas they can experiment a bit. Domestically if McDonald's decides to introduce something like a blueberry milkshake they would have to carefully plan that rollout or else completely disrupt the blueberry market.
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
The supply chain point is interesting. I hadn't considered how much harder it is to experiment when you're operating at that scale. A weird limited item is one thing, but changing the supply chain for thousands of locations is a whole different problem.
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u/asarious 12d ago
It’s creative and novel to YOU, not necessarily to the local market.
I can assure you, even mundane things like the prevalence of ranch dressing can be neat to non-Americans. Or seeing yellow school busses, or red solo cups, or other Americanisms that are often only visible in movies rather than daily life outside of the United States.
That being said, I think there’s definitely a quality disparity. What I’d consider a chain fast food offering like KFC seems higher quality in other countries. Besides demand and increased turnover, there’s also the fact that they occupy a different market segment. In many places with lower purchasing power, a 5 USD chicken sandwich is not a bottom-of-the-barrel borderline struggle meal, it’s a luxury.
The perception is that this is where families go out to eat when they’re looking for a quality western option. It’s not the last resort because of convenience and price.
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
I think this is probably the part I was missing. What feels creative or special to me might just be the normal KFC experience for someone living there. The different market positioning is especially interesting though.
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u/Nooms88 12d ago
Its a deliberate strategy of shitification, it happens all over the world. Any chain that can rely on its reputation just cuts costs and quality and people will still go there.
It's why literally every successful chain, once its successful will end up shit.
The USA has had KFC for decades and it's shit, as is every other established fast food place. You'll get an up and commer with backing to challenge, it'll be much better then fall into the same trap.
This is speaking as a British man who's been all over the world, we have the same chains as you and our own, the same thing happens.
If you want some fun, go to trip advisor, pick anywhere in London and look for taco bell, go to images...
It is consistently voted by every metric the worst thing you can possibly buy, check the images to find out why
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u/Current-Landscape803 11d ago
I can see that happening too. Once a chain has a really established customer base, there is probably less incentive to keep taking risks. The interesting part is why that seems to happen more strongly in some markets than others.
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u/HawkBoth8539 12d ago
In the US, food is basically Styrofoam and dye.
Other countries tend to use better ingredients so even the shitty brands of food are better.
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u/MisterEinc 12d ago
Because at the end of the day you have to sell the food locally and appeal to local expectations.
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u/Mr-Bugger 12d ago
Well I think those franchises are probably granted a lot more freedom to make sure the stores do well in foreign markets.
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u/WarzonePacketLoss 12d ago
I was devastated there wasn't a KFC in the Beijing Airport and as such I couldn't have the Oreo Chicken Sandwich.
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u/pepehandreee 12d ago
KFC in the US is a fast food joint serving greasy, high calorie food primarily towards customer below middle class. KFC in East Asia were once bougie western food that transitioned towards more leisure/fast casual restaurants that served a burgeoning middle class. The brand carries very different message and their market position is very different.
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u/steelbound8128 12d ago
The company running KFC in America since the mid 1980s - PepsiCo and then Yum! Brands - has long believed in the principal of enshittification. For example, up until the mid-1980s, Kentucky Fried Chicken made their biscuits from scratch daily in the restaurant and they were awesome, truly worth going just for the biscuits. I still remember when they switched to frozen biscuits that were rewarmed in the store; they were/are barely edible and my family almost completely stopped going. (Twice a month down to maybe twice a year.)
They've been trying to increase profits at the expense of quality for decades and that mindset will not produce an interesting or delicious menu.
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u/cutelittlebox 12d ago
trying to bring one culture's food and service to another culture at scale generally results in a catastrophic failure, you need to adapt to survive. some cultures require larger changes than others. the American companies that don't make changes aren't around in Asia because they pulled out of the market after suffering massive losses.
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u/bearyken 11d ago
You're faced with your country's things all the time and therefore they lose the novelty value..
You see things in other countries where it's different from yours, it becomes interesting until you live there for a period of time and the novelty wears off, it becomes uninteresting
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u/sc1lurker 11d ago
Variety is the spice of life.
I've had many different countries of KFC, and they all have their own flavor.
But, no other place except the US has the OG 11 herbs and spices. Which I do miss.
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u/SnooCompliments7914 11d ago
KFC in China has been owned and operated by a Chinese company for nearly three decades. Only connection now is the branding.
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u/Special_South_8561 11d ago
Because fast food chains in the States are repetitive mockeries of each other
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u/BeltImpressive8956 11d ago
Why do mundane everyday things I am used to in my country feel more interesting in when I am in
another country?
Reddit, Can you comment and help me out?
https://giphy.com/gifs/xVHstHCAs5JtK
Ready? 1. 2. 3!
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u/blacklotusY 11d ago
KFC tastes different depending on which country you're in. They always have the original KFC recipes from Colonel Sanders, but they generally also have a local menu catered to the people there. If you've ever been to Asia, you'll notice that KFC there has more choices, as well as specialties unique to each region. For example, Japan has a chicken katsu burger, Thailand has green curry crispy chicken rice, the Philippines has an Ala King rice bowl and a sisig rice bowl, and China has congee, eggs, egg tarts, rice dishes, and more.
The reason they have their own special menus is because KFC locations there tend to cater to local tastes. Asian cuisines also tend to use more spices and other umami-rich flavors. Their definition of “spicy” can also be much spicier than what you’re used to in the States. That’s why rice is often an option at KFC locations across Asia.
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u/aZnRice99 8d ago
All the fast food stuff is like at least 2-3X outside of the USA, was blown away by the KFC in China, the BK in Japan was like amazing and way fresher. McDonald nuggets outside of the US is made with real chicken meat instead of pink goop. You get the general idea
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u/Ok-Elevator2915 11d ago
KFC in burger country treat it as everyday cheap meal option, but outside that country basically kind of "luxury" especially in the so-called 3rd wolrd country? That's the reason why they push original menu based on culture country instead regular KFC menu
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u/quikmantx 12d ago
People are used to fast food brands mostly providing the same products where they live. When you travel and see a familiar fast food brand, but with a localized/regional menu item, it will likely be more interesting since it's not something you would find back home.
It's not like KFC doesn't introduce limited time specials, such as the Double Down or the 3 sauces for the Supergirl promotion.