Irene Jiang/Business Insider; Samantha Lee/Business Insider
Popeyes instigated the Chicken Sandwich Wars of 2019.
- Popeyes launched a fried-chicken sandwich in August.
- After a Twitter spat with Chick-fil-A went viral, Popeyes' sandwich exploded in popularity.
- Popeyes employees across the nation were sent into overdrive as many worked nearly 60-hour weeks to fulfill orders. The sandwich sold out across the country after being available for just two weeks.
- Following a nearly two-month hiatus, the sandwich returned on Sunday, November 3. And, in some cases, tensions escalated. Police confirmed that a deadly stabbing was connected to the relaunch of the sandwich.
- Here's how a spat between two fast-food chains devolved into a civil war among sandwich-crazed customers.
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Life was simpler in the early days of the Chicken Sandwich Wars.
The choice, though divisive, was clear. You were either for Chick-fil-A or Popeyes. And though still a war in the most basic sense, most of the battles were confined to snarky tweets and comments on social media. It was a simpler time, for the most part.
The war started when Popeyes added a chicken sandwich to its menu in August. Chick-fil-A, the self-proclaimed inventor of the chicken sandwich, had built an entire empire around poultry, sandwiched and otherwise, for years.
Popeyes was the underdog in this battle. Still, the chain's move threatened Chick-fil-A's dominance on the chicken sandwich scene. Business Insider's Irene Jiang even proclaimed the Popeyes sandwich the superior option before it went viral.
But then, some Popeyes fans began to turn on each other, and tensions escalated.
Here's how a spat between two fast-food chains devolved into a civil war among sandwich-crazed customers.