Deal: By shopping the specials carefully I was able to load up the
freezer with some $19/kg standing rib roasts (bone-in, ungraded, a
little gristly but with excellent flavour), and some more $13
sirloins a while ago. Those are excellent prices here considering
that ground beef is now up to $11 unless it's on special (which
rarely happens during grilling season) and AAA grade strip loins are
an amazing (read "stupid") $41.86/kg ($18.99/1lb!)

No deal: And I can't believe chicken prices! Whole birds, legs and
thighs have risen from $6.60 to $8.80. (There was a bad Covid
outbreak at one major processing plant, so this might be temporary.
We'll see.)

Another no deal: I sold a hunk of raw land to another KFC franchisee
two years ago. They finally opened up their new store in May and the
town went crazy. Their drive through lane was backed up into the
street for two blocks from opening until closing for two weeks.
But having said that the product sucked. They're running their
broasters and fryers at a lower temperature to make their oil last
longer so the chicken is soggy with grease and the fries pale and
limp. A co-worker brought in a large bucket and sides to the office
after the line up got a bit shorter and it was horrible. None of us
plan to go there, ever. Canadian Mary Brown's, which we used to
mock, is far better.

An interesting thing about this KFC: it serves Starbucks coffee
(which I am also not fond of so it's not a draw) and I believe it is
the first one in North America to do so. Here's the back story:
There is a British company that holds the master franchise in that
country for both Starbucks and Yum! brands and they have been
combining operations there for some time with corporate approval.
They bought an Ontario based company with about 120 KFC franchises
and are opening up several more. They persuaded corporate to sell
the coffee in the chicken store here as an experiment.

Deal: Ever since the old KFC closed down, the deli dept. at Loblaws
has been doing a landslide business in both rotisserie and fried
chicken along with sides. They have lots of choices: hot and mild
wings, legs, thighs, breast tenders & nuggets, Southern style fried
chicken, rotisserie quarter birds and most days, spareribs along with
the customer's choice of regular fries, battered spicy spuds, onion
rings, mac and cheese or a steamed mixed vegetable medley. A two
piece meal with one side is just $5 and they also sell 10 pieces of
chicken for $10 starting around 4:30 PM for take home. And I've
learned that leftover packages, if any, are just $5 after 6 PM.
Their chicken products are as good as any fast food outlets and we
are frequent customers.



Cheers

Jim


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