John King
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 11/06) - One of the great cheap lunches in Yellowknife - the $2 Tuesday at the Yellowknife KFC - is no more because the company ran out of chickens.

"It's not a shortage of chicken in general, but a shortage in the supply of chicken that KFC uses - the KFC-sized bird," said Sasha Jason, store manager. The fast food restaurant stopped serving up the two pieces of chicken and fries for $2.22 plus tax in early December after posting a sign on the restaurant's front door informing customers about the decision.

KFC used to receive its chicken in cases weighing 23kg, but this is now shipped in 29kg cases that actually contain chicken pieces larger than the KFC standard.

"Chicken farmers are only allowed to produce so many chickens of each size," Jason said.

"They've filled their quotas of the KFC-sized bird and are now producing larger birds."

A new process to ready the finger-lickin' good morsels has come into play, too.

"Now we're also receiving frozen chicken pieces. Because this creates more work (to thaw them), more work means we need more people," Jason said.

When asked if customers feel cheated that the restaurant dropped the deal, Jason says customers don't seemed that fazed at all.

"The first Tuesday we didn't have it, the store was just as busy as it would have been with the deal," Jason said. "There's just not as many school kids at lunchtime."

Not all high school students come to KFC on Tuesday for the deal In the case of Grade 10 Sir John Franklin student James Minty, it's fine by him the deal's been dropped.

"KFC isn't packed anymore on Tuesdays and there are places to sit now," Minty said.

On the other hand, Mary Adele Dryneck feels business at the restaurant is really going to slow down.

"Lots of people don't have much money and it's cheaper for them on Tuesday. Especially for families who can feed all their children for cheap," Dryneck said.

"Now that they've stopped, I don't know where these people are going to eat."

- With files from Sydney Selvon.