“I haven’t been to a KFC in years, they’re always hilariously overpriced. I decided to check how much a simple 8-piece bucket of chicken costs there now and it’s $22.99. Who would pay that for 8 pieces of their chicken? After taxes that’s over $3 for each piece. I’d rather go to Costco for $5 and get an entire rotisserie chicken.”
That Reddit comment hit a nerve. It wasn’t the complaint of someone who’d had a bad experience – it was the comment of someone who had done the math and decided KFC no longer made sense. A growing number of customers are arriving at the same conclusion.
KFC dominated American fast food for decades. It was the place you brought home a bucket of chicken on a Friday night, when you wanted something special that didn’t cost much. That version of KFC – affordable, indulgent, a little nostalgic – is what older customers describe when they talk about missing it. “I grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” one Redditor wrote. “Once in a while one of my parents would bring home a bucket of KFC chicken and some sides for dinner. It didn’t break the bank. It was considered affordable. But it was also delicious. The fluffy buttery biscuits, the creamy mac and cheese, the crispy flavorful juicy chicken that hit just right. Now I wouldn’t buy it, no way.”
The price and the product
The chain is competing against newer rivals like Popeyes and Raising Cane’s that have captured the fast food chicken conversation, while also facing criticism that its prices no longer reflect what it’s delivering.
Menu changes haven’t helped. The discontinuation of popcorn chicken drew particular frustration from fans who considered it one of the chain’s best items. “Popcorn chicken was five times better,” one former customer posted. “It was all different sizes of the actual original recipe. Now the chicken isn’t the same, it’s all the same size, and the flavoring is not nice.”
What KFC is doing about it
Parent company Yum! Brands appointed a new KFC CEO back in early 2025, signaling an acknowledgment that the chain needed a reset. KFC still has an enormous global footprint and plenty of loyal customers – particularly internationally – and the brand remains one of the most recognized in the world. But domestically, winning back customers who’ve quietly stopped showing up is the challenge. For many of them, the decision to leave wasn’t dramatic. They just did the math.
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