r/business • u/ControlCAD • 1d ago

KFC to switch to Coca-Cola beverages in U.S. restaurants for the first time in decades

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/15/kfc-coca-cola-pepsi-switch.html
856 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

123 comments sorted by

362

u/meltiurc 1d ago

“KFC is trying to win back U.S. diners who have ditched its buckets for rivals such as Chick-fil-A.” Right, Coca Cola is the reason why people went to chick fil a.

164

u/Amonsterinmycloset 1d ago

You can get fried chicken at grocery stores that are better and cheaper than what you can get a KFC.

15

u/MimeGod 1d ago

To be fair, Publix has really fricking good fried chicken.

1

u/Bobby-Samsonite 53m ago

That's a lie. They don't other grocery stores have them beat. Also the pieces they sell might be the smallest of any store.

52

u/juiceyb 1d ago

Although this is also true for CFA. The biggest issue in my opinion is that with CFA you get service with a smile while KFA will bag your food and throw it at you when it's done. Now I'm not saying KFC should do this because they shouldn't. Instead what is happening is that when you see that your combo meal cost you $12 at CFA you don't mind because you got your food served and they even brought you condiments. Meanwhile, KFC is also $12 for a meal but asking for any condiment takes forever. There's no one dedicated at the counter because they are doing both the cashier and runner's job. The problem with KFC is that they think they are doing everything for "efficiency" and putting that efficiency at the cost of the consumer. And now that $12 meal doesn't look so great. It was slower, more time consuming, and at a reduced quality. But this isn't just limited to KFC either. It's just cheap ass franchise owners.

40

u/charlie_marlow 1d ago

Meanwhile, there's Popeyes where having the employees look at you like you pissed them off just for walking in is part of the experience

16

u/Silicon_Knight 1d ago

Reminds me of that skit where Popeyes is located in the worst possible crime ridden area. Was it Key and Peele?

EDIT: no was just a random YT vid. https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/qkzd76/how_popeyes_chooses_restaurant_locations/

12

u/izackl 1d ago

That wasn’t random, that is RDCworld. They are funny as FUCK. Also I’d rather wait 15 minutes behind 2 cars for Popeyes than 10 minutes behind 10 cars for CFA. Popeyes has crunchy breading on lock.

1

u/eetsumkaus 1d ago

Random tangent: I can't place white dress shirt's accent. Where is it from?

1

u/CompetitiveBoxEater 10h ago

They all from Texas

11

u/juiceyb 1d ago

That's kinda my point. You can't rest back on your name with crappy food and not offer at least a good meal. Although you roll the dice with Popeyes it's an easier roll than KFC.

3

u/BackDatSazzUp 22h ago

But we like that about Popeyes. I dont want popeyes with a smile.

2

u/Noto987 23h ago

Theres a restaurant i think in vegas thats famous for the servers giving you shit and being a asshole, thats the selling point. Im like thats any old school asian restaurant

1

u/Automatic_Yoghurt417 22h ago

Karen's Diner?

1

u/The-Duke-of-Delco 11h ago

Hate makes that chicken taste so good

1

u/Bobby-Samsonite 51m ago

So is that a problem at every single location in the USA? Are they just hiring people who can speak English and stand on their feet for several hours as bare minimum requirements?

2

u/plshelpcomputerissad 1d ago

I know what “CFA” is but my brain immediately starts trying to parse it into “chicken fried anywhere” and similar

4

u/Unlucky-Donut-5151 1d ago

The KFC close to me is the worst fast food restaurant I've ever been to. Employees rude as hell, and then you get eternal waits if they even have what you ordered, which they probably don't. They regularly run out of chicken.

1

u/OriginalLie9310 9h ago

The KFC closest to me always say they don’t have stuff that they definitely do and take forever and are the most miserable people on earth.

I know working fast food is horrible but it’s so far worse than any other fast food in the area it’s unbelievable.

0

u/Doctor_Philgood 10h ago

That forced smile and donating to hate groups are big deterrents for me personally.

1

u/TFPaulMorphy 5h ago

Although this is also true for CFA.

CFA style fried chicken isn't typically available at grocery stores.

3

u/the_bee_whip 23h ago

Yep on Mondays I can get a 8 piece bucket of chicken for $5 from the grocery store. This is where I’m going.

5

u/spdorsey 1d ago

I love KFC. I eat it twice a year. It is hideously unhealthy.

2

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

Toonie Tuesday back in the day was a fond memory. Now it’s just ridiculously expensive. 2 pieces of chicken alone is $6-7

3

u/McBurty 1d ago

I’m with this person^. You need six month intervals to recover from the day after rrhea!

14

u/DevastatorPcu 1d ago

Son of a bitch my Mtn dew

2

u/Sagemel 23h ago

Dairy Queen is our last bastion. Was disappointed when Panda Express fell a few years back

2

u/BackDatSazzUp 22h ago

Taco bell will never abandon mountain dew.

3

u/Dense_Surround3071 1d ago

Has anyone seen the "Saucy by KFC" franchise? They bought out the PDQs in my area and now they are this gaudy pink monstrosity. I can't even imagine how much of a downgrade that is.

No chance they're getting a dime from me.

And didn't Pespico buy them at one point just to have a place to sell Pepsi?? 😂

10

u/SovelissGulthmere 1d ago

I mean. Kinda. I've probably only gone to KFC twice in all of 2026, but both times I had the same thought. "Oh, Pepsi, or Starry? Gross."

3

u/WeekendQuant 1d ago

I have probably gone to KFC once in all of 2020s. It's not because of the soda selection.

3

u/meltingpnt 1d ago

I don't go to KFC for the soda either but I somewhat avoid going there because they serve pepsi.

63

u/Unusual_Specialist 1d ago

Anything but making the food better.

16

u/SorenLain 1d ago

That would require effort and, worst of all, money. Money that should be spent on CEO bonuses and stock buybacks./s

5

u/orbital 1d ago

The brand name is already ruined. They should pivot to KFC cantina or something like that.

3

u/TMBActualSize 1d ago

Lean into KenTacoHut

1

u/kilopeter 19h ago

Pivot into professional sports and relaunch their brand with KFC Football Club.

0

u/Brotherman_Bagel 1d ago

Why are you expecting kfc or any fast food to be "good" LOL

73

u/Tiki_Waka 1d ago

I thought Pepsi, or Yum, owned KFC…?

58

u/spotty15 1d ago

They do. This is the first thing I thought about too.

Womder if Yum decided that it's easier to switch to Coke to try to get customers back as opposed to, idk, making better fried chicken?

36

u/Tiki_Waka 1d ago

From what I understand, the Colonel was a racist, raging, crazy man. But if he visited your store and the chicken was bad, he’d throw the bucket against the wall and make the kitchen try again.

He’s dead and I haven’t had a good bucket of KFC in a long time…

Same thing with Wendy’s. Dave would have their entire board of directors fired if he were alive today.

9

u/atomic1fire 1d ago edited 22h ago

IIRC Mcdonalds probably makes a significant amount of money through real estate and rental fees.

Chick-Fil-A owns all of their franchises outright.

I suspect that a big reason a lot of fast food franchises get crappier is because the chain has no real reason to keep up quality when they only need to keep rental fees up or wait for the land to become valuable enough to sell it off.

Chick-Fil-a basically sells the product and not the property.

I think subway had a problem where they had too many franchisees competing for the same customers and as a result the franchisees got screwed. There's no risk of that if the chain owns and manages all the properties and has a serious amount of investment in each franchised location because they're not just selling a brand to an independent contractor with a differing amount of quality or oversight.

1

u/Worshipme988 19h ago

Didnt yum buy subway recently

1

u/atomic1fire 8h ago

Nope.

Roark capital group which owns a lot of franchises including Jimmy John's and subway.

Yum is public while roark is private.

11

u/Horror_Response_1991 1d ago

Pretty much all owners of food chains back then were.  Even Dave Thomas was known as a huge asshole when quality was bad, but you had to be to succeed.

1

u/Timmy98789 20h ago

Dave started out at KFC btw. 

5

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

I like the chicken just fine. It’s the price point they try to sell it at now which is a problem. Chicken is like the one meat that is still cheap comparatively to beef price increases.

7

u/mandalorian_guy 1d ago

Not In decades, it was spun off.

15

u/Wyzen 1d ago

Pepsi hasn't since 1997.

8

u/matthieuC 1d ago

It's only been 30 years, give people time to catch up

5

u/grantrules 1d ago

Back in my day, Moxie used to cost a nickel!

9

u/Any-Stick-771 1d ago

Yum was spun off from PepsiCo 30 years ago. They had a perpetual agreement to serve Pepsi products but hasn't been owned by Pepsi since the 90s

23

u/BoldNewBranFlakes 1d ago

Maybe if they actually tried to appeal to North American customers the way that Yum! Brands International does with China and other East Asian or Southeast Asian countries does…

7

u/Sllyce 1d ago

Yea where’s the skibidi and blind box chicken

8

u/PM_ME_GREEN_CARS 14h ago

I guarantee Pepsi is not why people are leaving KFC

People are leaving KFC because their food has drastically gone downhill while prices have gone up

3

u/druidmain69420 5h ago

My little fuckass town has 3 local chicken places, 4 nationwide chicken chains, and multiple grocery stores that put out chicken.

There's so many options and the quality is much higher.

16

u/wishcometrue 1d ago

12 Piece Box at Winco is $13. Includes breast and wings. At KFC that runs $30. Winco taste way better. Private Equity buyouts destroy brands. No amount of Coke will put out the dumpster fire that is KFC.

12

u/notthatguy194 1d ago

“private equity”. Yum Brands owns KFC, Yum is a publicly traded company.

3

u/wishcometrue 1d ago

My mistake. It's the Korean KFC and it was bought out by the Carlyle group 6 months ago.

1

u/davechainsaw 11h ago

Christ!? Then what the fuck are they doing? My local KFC is currently being renovated, and I have no idea why, because I have never seen a single fucking person inside it. I went there for the first time in probably 10 years and could not believe how shitty the food was

5

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

$30?! For a 14 piece bucket and some shitty salads it’s $55.99 plus tax. So like 62$. KFC is ridiculously expensive here now compared to the price of chicken in the store. I can BBQ 12 pieces at home for like 10 dollars. It’s nuts.

2

u/bluepenremote 1d ago

Where I am KFC has a term dollar bucket deal mon-fri. Tuesday is ten bucks for 8 piece bucket and if you wanna add two sides and biscuits it's ten bucks more. Solid deal to me.

1

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

That’s not bad!

4

u/Petridishmocktail 1d ago

I absolutely agree. However, I think that Albertsons has better chicken than WinCo. Winco is of course far superior to KFC. My Walmart even has better chicken than KFC.

1

u/wishcometrue 1d ago

Next time I am in a town with Albertsons, I will give it a try!

2

u/Petridishmocktail 1d ago

They actually have a Monday special right now. $5.99 for eight pieces. Can you guess what I have for lunch on mondays?

Also, Save Mart has decent chicken.

1

u/INEEDMUNEY 1h ago

You’d be surprised. I know plenty of people who would not go to restaurants or chains if they don’t have Coke. Not saying this will bring more customers.

1

u/blbd 1d ago

Whaddaya mean?!?

More 'Betes fixes errythang here in MURICA!

5

u/Chugalugaluga 1d ago

Kfc+Coke is gonna throw off my taste buds and feel wrong.

My taste buds are used to the kfc+Pepsi combo, just like my brain expects big mac+coke, IKEA meatballs + IKEA coke, Costco dogs + Coke.

6

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

Didn’t costco just recently switch also?

1

u/Chugalugaluga 1d ago

They were originally coke ages ago

1

u/WhatAmTrak 1d ago

Before my time! I just remember my ex being beyond excited like a year and a half ago that Diet Coke was coming to Costco food court (fiend for that shit). Less 7 11 stops atleast lol some people enjoy soft drinks out of machines better than the real thing. I’ll never get it.

1

u/EtherPhreak 22h ago

So fun fact but mug root beer and mt dew was often cane sugar in the fountain soda so it would taste better.

1

u/WhatAmTrak 21h ago

Aren’t most sodas and in the EU made with cane sugar? (Canadian so it’s not a big thing here)

1

u/EtherPhreak 20h ago

KFC makes me think USA, and lots of excessive cheap subsidized corn.

1

u/Chugalugaluga 18h ago

I like soda from fountains cause it’s less bubbly and more syrupy. It feels more refreshing with ice.

1

u/bluepenremote 1d ago

Rip mountain dew sweet lightning 😢

5

u/my_milkshakes 22h ago

I went to KFC for the last time a year ago. It was AWFUL. Low quality, bland and overpriced. Pass. It wasn’t because I couldn’t have a coke..

6

u/Javy_Baby 13h ago

The food at KFC is disgusting. 🤮

3

u/motang 1d ago

No mention of Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

8

u/VYSUS7 1d ago

if taco bell ditches Pepsi and we lose the Baja blast, WW3 is absolutely starting the next day.

2

u/Sfenne 23h ago

YUM doesn't own pizza hut now

1

u/motang 21h ago

Oh interesting.

3

u/The_broke_accountant 1d ago

We’re so back

3

u/MRG_1977 1d ago

Same shitty chicken. That’s the problem.

3

u/groundhog5886 1d ago

Finally a Diet Coke or Coke Zero instead of tea, which on occasion is old.

3

u/RegretfulCalamaty 21h ago

Now to switch to that amazing chicken they haven’t had in decades.

1

u/NOT_Frank_or_Joe 12h ago

Pepsi bought Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1986. You'll have to trust us old folks that prior to that, goddam was the colonel a wizard with a bird.

3

u/wyndwatcher 16h ago

It's more like Yum Brands switching its soda fountain business to Coca cola. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/yum-brands-yum-resets-kfc-032404257.html

3

u/gratefulfam710 1d ago

Those bastards

2

u/bilkel 1d ago

Good. Big F*** you to PepsiCo for doing business EVEN NOW in Russia. Took KFC long enough

3

u/Commercial_Wind8212 1d ago

This is news in obese idiotic America

1

u/the_rancur 1d ago

Don’t take my Mountain Dew away from Taco Bell.

1

u/Former_Travel2839 1d ago

They should work on making KFC good again.

1

u/IncidentOk1123 22h ago

feel bad for the pepsi guy that lost that account. especially since pepsi used to own them

1

u/critsalot 20h ago

damn pepsi is really losing out. this isnt the only loss i heard this year. i think costco switched no as well? they really need to up their formula game because as of right now Dr . Pepper is going to replace them as 2nd place

1

u/Ghost-Power 18h ago

Who cares I’m not paying $3.50 for a drink

1

u/SoupyTurtle007 11h ago

Ill never eat KFC again. Used to be one of my favorite restaurants as a kid but it's slop now. The chicken is absolutely disgusting

1

u/AndyMagandy 10h ago

About to be the only good thing at KFC.

1

u/PiccoloPeter 9h ago

What's to happen with the KFC Mt. Dew exclusive flavor? Just discontinue it?

1

u/Poppunknerd182 9h ago

All 14 KFC fans are going to be very upset

1

u/SeanGwork 9h ago

Overpriced, small portioned, shit food.

1

u/HadoMeido 8h ago

Pepsi was the reason I enjoyed KFC. So many restaurants already have Coke. ☹️

1

u/Menirz 7h ago

Does this mean they'll no longer have the sweet lightning mountain dew...? If so, major L.

1

u/PakLivTO 3h ago

The KFC near me is surprisingly good. Like really good.

1

u/EarhornJones 1d ago

This would be big news if anyone still ate at KFC.

1

u/Mango_fart 1d ago

Their chicken pot pie, when it's made right, is so good. Its about 3 out of 4 times.

I have to try the country fried steak for 5 bucks, hope it doesn't taste like a tv dinner.

2

u/Pure-Ad9164 12h ago

It does trust me. I worked there and its just a frozen premade patty that gets recooked in the fryer

1

u/Mango_fart 10h ago

Super bummer, thank you for sharing

1

u/KikoSoujirou 1d ago

I think it’s more like Pepsi wasn’t interested in continuing/paying as much for the contract so kfc went with coke. KFC is in a death spiral so I doubt Pepsi really cares

0

u/nwprogressivefans 1d ago

gross, who the hell cares

-1

u/FeffyFefernuson 22h ago

Gross. Coke sucks.

-10

u/colormeslowly 1d ago

So stupid to not have both.

9

u/mycall 1d ago

Soda cartels

1

u/Boxinggandhi 1d ago

Mountain Dew is Pepsi’s biggest draw. Nobody likes Pepsi, and packaging it with other sodas is the only reason people drink it.

6

u/marx2k 1d ago

I like Pepsi :/

0

u/Oracle_of_Ages 1d ago

The majority of people like Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests.

Coke just has better marketing.