Chicken Delight is a
chain of restaurants offering eat-in, take-out, and delivery service with a menu featuring chicken, pizza, and ribs. Based in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
, the chain mostly has outlets in that city and throughout
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
. Although as of 2019, six Chicken Delight restaurants are located in the
New York metro area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...
, none of these are included in the corporate web site list of franchise locations.
History
The current Chicken Delight operation is a descendant of a much larger chain. Founded in
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
in 1952, the chain grew during the 1960s to over 1,000 locations.
[Chicken Delight – Company Profile](_blank)
It was purchased in 1964 by
Consolidated Foods
The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht ...
. The jingle "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight," emphasizing their delivery and take-out services, was widely advertised on American radio and television during the 1960s. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the chain's mascot was a chicken with a chef's hat, holding a plate of biscuits.
By the late 1960s, Chicken Delight in the US was a troubled operation. While emerging chains like
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
ensured that all outlets provided a product that met the franchisor's strict standards, the quality control of Chicken Delight outlets was lax. The company was thus fighting the battle with people who, having had a bad experience in one outlet, generalized that to the entire chain, then told their friends to stay away.
[Contemporaneous conversations with Roland Tognazzini, Sr., VP Consolidated Foods]
Chicken Delight was simultaneously under increasing pressure from fast-growing competitor
Kentucky Fried Chicken
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...
(KFC). Although Chicken Delight and KFC were founded the same year, and Chicken Delight had initially expanded far more quickly, KFC was beginning to enter and gaining popularity in many markets. The competition became particularly strong in 1972 when KFC added new "Extra-Crispy" chicken to their menu with a taste and texture similar to Chicken Delight's product.
During the early 1970s, legal actions resulted in a substantial reduction in the Chicken Delight chain (see below).
In 1979, Otto Koch, owner of the successful Chicken Delight Canada Ltd., purchased the remnants of the American Chicken Delight operations.
Products
Chicken Delight serves chicken-based products such as chicken wings, buffalo wings, chicken fingers, and chicken burgers. The chain also offers pizza, popcorn shrimp, ribs, and a variety of side dishes including french fries, onion rings, poutine (mostly in Canadian locations), potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw. The only dessert product that Chicken Delight offers is cheesecake.
The chain also features Pizza and Chicken combos, and individual and family dinners. All the individual dinners come with sides of fries, coleslaw, and a bread roll. The family dinner comes with the same sides as the individual dinners, but gravy is added. The Pizza and Chicken combos consist of a pie and a range from 6-15 pieces of chicken, comes complete with fries and gravy as the sides.
Chicken Delight serves
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi was ...
products. They come in either cans, 2 liter bottles, or smaller 20 oz. bottles.
Legal cases
When Chicken Delight was founded, franchisers typically used one of two different methods for collecting revenue. One was to collect 4% to 8% of gross sales, as is typically done now. The other method was to require their franchisees to buy all their equipment and packaging from the franchisor. In the latter scheme Chicken Delight franchisees paid a little extra for each paper cup, each paper plate, the chicken-coating mix, etc., providing the franchisor with income for corporate operations, advertising, and profit. Some franchisees (and their legal representatives) believed this scheme ran afoul of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which requires that the franchisor not sell products above fair market value. In the 1960s a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 94 franchisees and, in 1971, the plaintiffs won a precedent-setting ruling from the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that broke the franchise contract for all stores and awarded damages to the plaintiffs. (''Siegel v. Chicken Delight, 448 F.2d 43 (9th Cir. 1971)''; reversed in modern times by decisions such as ''Queen City Pizza v. Domino's Pizza'', 124 F.3d 430 (1997).)
The lawsuit win proved to be a
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory ( ) is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.
The phrase originates from a quote from P ...
because Consolidated Foods (Now
Sara Lee Corporation
The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht ...
), then-owner of Chicken Delight, abandoned the business in the US, leaving all its former US franchisees to fend for themselves.
Today, some of the old US stores operate independently under names reminiscent of the original, such as "Chicken Tonight."
See also
*
List of fast-food chicken restaurants
This is a list of notable chicken restaurants. This list includes casual dining, fast casual and fast food restaurants which typically specialize in chicken dishes such as fried chicken, chicken and waffles, Chicken sandwiches or chicken and ...
Notes
{{reflist
External links
Chicken Delight website Restaurants in Manitoba
Fast-food chains of Canada
Fast-food chains of the United States
Companies based in Winnipeg
Fast-food poultry restaurants
Restaurants established in 1952
1952 establishments in Illinois
American companies established in 1952
Fast-food franchises