- The relaunch was so popular that foot traffic to stores surpassed the peak traffic during the original launch of the sandwich, according to foot-traffic tracker Placer.ai.
- "It is as crazy as last time if not more," said a shift leader in a Texas Popeyes restaurant. This employee said his store sold over 2,000 sandwiches the first night of the relaunch and brought in over $12,500, or four times a typical Sunday earning for his store. This employee asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
- "We loved seeing so many guests visit our restaurants," Popeyes said in a statement. "While we don't disclose information on sales, we can share that some locations experienced drive-thru lines down the street and we saw in-store lines go out the front door. We are grateful to our guests who waited in line to try the sandwich and shared their love for our food through social media."
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The Popeyes chicken sandwich might be even more popular the second time around as restaurants report long lines and soaring sales
Popeyes relaunched its wildly popular chicken sandwich on Sunday after selling out of the menu item in August.
Popeyes chicken sandwich
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The Popeyes chicken sandwich might be even more popular the second time around.
Popeyes relaunched its wildly popular menu item on Sunday, following a nearly two-month hiatus. During its original run in August, the sandwich sold out only about two weeks after it had first become available.
Even with the hype surrounding the debut of the sandwich namely the Twitter spat between Chick-fil-A and Popeyes that made the sandwich go viral more people seem to have visited Popeyes stores the second time the sandwich has come around.
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Foot-traffic tracker Placer.ai found that customer visits to Popeyes soared on opening day, at 299.3% above the baseline, exceeding the peaks of the original launch at 255.6% and 243% on Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24, respectively.
"It is as crazy as last time if not more," said a shift leader in a Texas Popeyes who worked through the first iteration of the Chicken Sandwich Wars and said his location sold over 2,000 sandwiches the first night of the relaunch.
This employee said his store brought in over $12,500 on Sunday, a number he said is four times what his store makes on a typical Sunday. He added that it's the most he's seen during his two years at the chain. This employee asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
"We had a line outside before we even opened," the employee said. "Customers were outside before I was even at the store to open."
Popeyes did not confirm sales numbers with Business Insider but said that some locations experienced drive-thru lines down the street and in-store lines that went out the front door.
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"We are grateful to our guests who waited in line to try the sandwich and shared their love for our food through social media," Popeyes said.
When the original sandwich debuted in August, Popeyes employees across the country said they were working on overdrive to fulfill orders.
"I was working like a slave in the back prepping the buns with pickles and the spicy mayo," one 18-year-old Popeyes crew member in Orange County, California, told Business Insider in August .
As of now, the sandwich is expected to be back for good. An employee in a franchised California Popeyes location told Business Insider that his distribution center was preparing for the hype of the chicken sandwich relaunch as far back as September.
"We're not expecting it to sell out but anything could happen," the Texas employee said.
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See Also:
- A deadly stabbing at Popeyes was linked to the return of the chicken sandwich, and it reflects a troubling trend for fast-food workers
- I went to Starbucks' futuristic new pickup-only store and saw how it could transform the way people buy their coffee
- Police confirm that a deadly stabbing at Popeyes was linked to the return of the chicken sandwich
SEE ALSO: Popeyes' viral chicken sandwich is reportedly returning to nearly 150 locations in early November and the chain is hiring hundreds of extra workers to handle the hype
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