Retail Watchers

Popeye's brought back the chicken sandwich to massive lines recently. Now Taco Bell is testing fried chicken strips in Houston and Dayton with a chainwide roll out in 2020.

The fried chicken craze is sweeping the nation, and Taco Bell wants a piece of it. They are not going into sandwiches, but chicken is big right now.

Taco Bell is doing rolled chicken tacos right now which are also fried.

They did chicken nugget type things a while back. I actually liked the Chickstar which had nuggets inside of a wrapped hexagon.

Buffalo Wild Wings got in on it too - a "southern style" fried chicken sandwich that is beer battered featured prominently on their website menu.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not to mention near me, several chicken chains have been expanding. Bojangle's, Zaxby's, Popeyes, and Royal Farms (a convenience store chain known for its fried chicken). KFC, the old standby of chicken restaurants, has been declining in presence in comparison.

I guess this craze isn't everywhere. The only thing I have noticed is a few new offerings at McDonald's. The only chicken restaurant close to me is KFC, and while the local location has been remodeled recently, the longtime franchise operator in Vancouver, WA sold a few years back and many of those locations have closed. Vancouver does have a Popeye's, but nothing else really stands out as far as chicken goes in my area.