JAMAICANS ARE MAD AT KFC AFTER A $30 INCREASE FOR ITS “ZINGER COMBO MEAL”, A PETITION DRIVE HAS BEGAN!

Outraged by a $30 increase in the cost of the KFC Zinger combo meal, one lover of the sandwich has started a petition to have the price reverted to its original price.

Posted to the website, Change.org, the petition, titled ‘Bring Zingers back to under JMD$600’, which was created on October 4, has almost reached the 5,000-signature mark in less than a week.

A petition to make folklorist Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou) an official national icon pales in comparison, as it only garnered just about 1,000 signatures during the May 12 to September 7 period that it ran on the Office of the Prime Minister’s (OPM) website.

The creator of the petition has cited that when the Zinger could be purchased for $595, it felt like a splurge that was well worth the sacrifice for its juicy sumptuousness.

JUST TOO MUCH

She goes on to argue that the addition of $30 may seem small to ‘corporate big wigs,’ but to the ‘common folk the increase’ is just too much to bear after the cost of the meal increased on October 3.

While Andrei Roper, the brand manager of Restaurants of Jamaica, which operates the franchise in Jamaica, noted that the company was aware of the petition, he said he could not speak to the impact that the petition may have on the price of the sandwich.

“Any response, any comment or any feedback that we get from customers, whether social media, email or whatever the case, we do take it seriously,” he told THE STAR.

However, he pointed to business decisions that were in the best interest of the company and its objectives as the reason for the price increase.

“In recent years and months, some of those input costs have increased, and in the past we have held on to increases of the Zinger even in light of the increase in the cost of supplies. But this year was one year we couldn’t put a hold on the price anymore in order to stay competitive, so we took the decision to increase the prices of the Zinger meal this year,” Roper said, noting that KFC strives to ensure that prices are manageable.