Remember when KFC was the first place you’d think of for fried chicken? Those days seem pretty far away now. The famous chain has been shutting down restaurants left and right, raising prices while somehow serving smaller portions, and watching customers walk out the door to competitors. With over 100 locations closing in recent years and sales dropping almost every quarter since 2023, something’s clearly gone wrong at the Colonel’s house. What happened to the restaurant that used to be synonymous with fried chicken in America?
Restaurants are closing faster than new ones open
The most obvious sign that KFC is struggling shows up when you drive by your local location and find the doors locked for good. In the summer of 2024, dozens of KFC restaurants suddenly closed without warning across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. These weren’t small mom-and-pop places either – they were full franchise operations that had been around for years. The company blamed it on franchisee troubles, specifically pointing fingers at EYM Chicken, the company that owned those restaurants. Their sister company had filed for bankruptcy right before pulling the plug on all those locations.
But that’s not just an American problem. Over in the UK, 13 KFC locations shut down in 2024, again catching everyone by surprise. KFC keeps saying it’s about franchisee issues and stores changing hands between owners, but when this many restaurants are closing this quickly, you have to wonder if there’s a bigger problem. Good restaurants with solid sales don’t just close down overnight. When your franchise owners are struggling this badly, it usually means the business model isn’t working anymore. The customers aren’t coming through the doors often enough to keep the lights on.
The prices went up while the portions shrunk
If you’ve ordered KFC lately and felt like you got less chicken for more money, you’re not imagining things. Customers everywhere are reporting that their meals look noticeably smaller than they used to, while the prices keep climbing higher. A simple three-piece tenders combo now costs almost $15 before tax in some locations, and that’s just for a few strips of chicken. Family bucket meals that used to feel like a good deal now leave you wondering if you should’ve just bought chicken from the grocery store instead.
The price increases have gone up about 30 to 40 percent over the last few years. Sure, everything’s gotten more expensive lately, and chicken costs have gone up across the board. But KFC seems to have pushed prices higher than customers are willing to pay, especially when they’re getting less food on their plate. When you’re spending this much money on fast food, you start looking at other options. Maybe a local restaurant, or even just cooking at home. KFC used to be the affordable option for feeding a family, but those days are long gone.
Every location serves different quality food
One of the weirdest things about KFC these days is that you never know what you’re going to get. The restaurant down the street might serve hot, fresh chicken that tastes great, while the one across town gives you cold, sad-looking pieces that have been sitting under a heat lamp for who knows how long. This inconsistency has become one of the biggest complaints from customers. You’d think a massive chain with thousands of locations would have figured out how to make the same chicken everywhere, but apparently not.
Some KFC locations still nail it and serve the kind of chicken you remember from the good old days. But too many others are serving food that barely seems edible. The LAX airport KFC has become famous for all the wrong reasons, with countless travelers complaining about cold food and terrible service. This quality control problem means eating at KFC has turned into a gamble. Even if you’ve had good experiences at one location, visiting a different store might leave you wishing you’d chosen literally anywhere else for dinner. When customers can’t trust that they’ll get decent food, they stop coming back.
The wait times have gotten ridiculously long
Fast food is supposed to be, well, fast. But KFC seems to have missed that memo lately. What used to be quick stops for dinner have turned into extended waits that eat up your entire lunch break. Even when the restaurant isn’t that busy, simple orders can take forever. Drive-thru lines crawl along at a snail’s pace, and if you go inside, you might be standing at the counter for 20 or 30 minutes just waiting for some chicken. That’s not fast food – that’s just regular slow food at fast food prices.
The problem gets even worse during peak meal times, when locations that are already struggling to keep up get completely overwhelmed. People have shared stories about waiting half an hour or more for their orders, only to finally get their food and find out half of it is missing or wrong. When you’ve got hungry kids in the car or limited time on your lunch break, this kind of wait is completely unacceptable. Other fast food chains have figured out how to move customers through quickly while still getting orders right. KFC hasn’t, and it’s costing them customers who don’t have time to waste.
The menu hasn’t kept up with what people want
Walk into a KFC today and the menu looks pretty much the same as it did years ago. While other chains are constantly rolling out new items and creative takes on chicken, KFC seems stuck in the past. They tried making a big splash with a chicken sandwich back in 2021, but it didn’t really move the needle. Meanwhile, customers who used to love KFC are finding that the menu doesn’t offer the variety they’re looking for anymore. The focus is still heavily on bone-in chicken buckets, but people’s tastes have changed.
Other chicken chains have figured out how to give customers what they want – whether that’s customizable wings, really good chicken sandwiches, or interesting new menu items that get people excited. KFC’s menu feels limited and boring by comparison. When Wingstop and Raising Cane’s are growing like crazy with more focused menus, and places like Chick-fil-A keep coming up with new items people actually want to try, KFC’s refusal to innovate stands out in the worst way possible. The current menu doesn’t give people many reasons to choose KFC over the competition, especially when those competitors are offering better quality and more interesting options.
The mobile app barely works when you need it
These days, pretty much every restaurant has a mobile app that makes ordering easier. KFC has one too, but customers report constant problems with it. The app crashes, orders don’t go through, and sometimes you’ll pay for food that never actually makes it to the restaurant. For something that’s supposed to make your life easier, KFC’s digital ordering system sure causes a lot of headaches. It feels like they’re still working out the bugs while other chains have had smooth, reliable apps for years.
The disconnect between what’s shown in the app and what’s actually available at the store adds another layer of frustration. Nothing’s worse than placing an order through the app, driving to the store, and then finding out that half the items you wanted aren’t available or the prices are different from what you paid. Other restaurants figured out how to sync their apps with their actual inventory and pricing ages ago. The fact that KFC is still struggling with basic app functionality in 2025 shows how far behind they’ve fallen in adapting to how people want to order food these days.
Customer service quality keeps dropping lower
The people working at KFC often seem just as frustrated as the customers. While some employees do their best and provide great service, many locations are clearly struggling with understaffing and poor training. Orders come out wrong, employees seem overwhelmed, and the overall service experience has become hit or miss at best. About 80 percent of customer complaints about KFC relate to food quality and service issues, which tells you everything you need to know about what’s happening behind the counter.
The high turnover rate at many locations means you never see the same staff twice, making it impossible to build any kind of relationship with the people serving your food. This constant change affects both the quality of service and the overall experience of eating there. When you compare KFC to competitors, the difference is stark. KFC gets about 5,000 customer complaints per month on average, while Chick-fil-A only gets around 500. Even accounting for KFC having more locations, that’s a huge gap. On the Better Business Bureau website, KFC scores just 1.4 out of five stars, while Chick-fil-A gets 2.1 – that’s 50 percent higher with almost the same number of reviews.
Many locations look run down and outdated
Step inside a lot of KFC restaurants and you’ll feel like you’ve traveled back in time – and not in a good, nostalgic way. Many locations are showing their age badly, with worn-out seats, outdated interiors, and maintenance issues that make you not want to stick around to eat. While some stores have gotten modern updates, too many others feel stuck in a previous decade. Sticky tables, dim lighting, and general wear and tear create an environment that doesn’t make you want to linger over your meal.
Even basic maintenance seems neglected in some locations. Broken seats, malfunctioning drink machines, and bathrooms that have seen better days all add up to an experience that feels cheap and uncared for. When newer chicken restaurants are opening up with clean, modern spaces and comfortable seating, KFC’s aging locations look even worse by comparison. If you’re going to charge premium prices for fast food, the least you can do is provide a clean, comfortable place for people to eat it. Many KFC locations aren’t meeting even that basic standard, making it harder to justify choosing them over better-maintained restaurants in the area.
Better chicken options are everywhere now
The biggest problem KFC faces might simply be that customers have more choices than ever before. New chicken chains are popping up all over the place, offering fresh takes on fried chicken with better service and often better prices. Local spots are getting in on the action too, serving up quality chicken that rivals or beats what KFC offers. When you can get better food for the same price or less, why would you keep going back to KFC? Most people visit KFC once a month or less these days, which suggests they’ve found other places they like better.
Popeyes overtook KFC as the number two chicken chain in 2023, and Chick-fil-A has been dominating the number one spot for years. Newer brands like Wingstop and Raising Cane’s are growing fast while KFC shrinks. Even grocery stores are getting into the game with quality prepared chicken options that cost less and sometimes taste better than what you get at KFC. Food delivery apps have made it easier than ever to order from local restaurants that might have been too far away before. With all these options available, KFC has to give customers a really good reason to choose them – and right now, they’re not.
KFC used to be America’s favorite chicken destination, but those glory days seem pretty far away right now. Between the store closures, price increases, quality issues, and intense competition from newer chains, the Colonel’s restaurants are facing serious challenges. Some locations still serve decent food and provide good service, but too many others have fallen way short of what customers expect. Until KFC figures out how to fix these problems and give people a reason to choose them over all the other chicken options out there, they’ll keep struggling to fill their dining rooms and drive-thrus.
