KFC vs Chick-fil-A | Guns, Guts, and Gravy | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's the Great Depression, and in one of Kentucky’s toughest corners, Harland Sanders defends his gas station business with sheer moxie and a loaded shotgun. He expands it into a thriving motel and restaurant, but impatient tourists balk at long wait times for his most popular dish — fried chicken. Eager to woo customers, Sanders risks life and limb experimenting with a new kitchen invention and creates a hit secret recipe. Along the way, he discovers a unique marketing gimmick: dressing up like a Kentucky Colonel from the frontier days.

Meanwhile in the post-war boom a young devout Christian named Truett Cathy opens a diner with his brother in Atlanta. Soon enough his company, Chick-fil-A, will hit KFC right where it hurts, in between two buttered buns.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	Special note to listeners, this episode contains adult content and language.
0:20.0	It's 1931, in Hell's Half-Aker, Kentucky.
0:27.0	It's an area about 75 miles south of Lexington, known for widespread gambling and drinking.
0:34.0	Harland Sanders stands outside his gas station.
0:38.0	He's 41 and a 6-foot tall barrel-chested bruiser with fiery red hair and a temper to match.
0:46.0	Sanders is talking with two of his bosses from Shell Oil Headquarters.
0:50.0	He turns to his district manager and points angrily at the standard oil station across the street.
0:55.0	You know that son of a bitch steward who owns that standard oil station?
0:59.0	He keeps painting over all my signs.
1:01.0	I put one up near Highway 25 with a big ol' arrow.
1:04.0	It points people straight to me and steward station, but that and Nimrod still blacked it out and put up an ad for standard oil.
1:11.0	The Shell manager grins back at him.
1:14.0	If I know you Sanders, you didn't take that lying down.
1:18.0	Hell no! I told him if he did it again, I'd blow his goddamn head off.
1:22.0	Then I painted over his damn sign.
1:26.0	A kid on a bike skids to a stop right in front of Harland.
1:29.0	Hey mister, I just saw steward's painting over your sign again.
1:34.0	Sanders turns to his managers.
1:36.0	You with me?
1:38.0	Both men nod and pat their coat pockets.
	...

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