A version of this post originally appeared on September 20, 2019, in “Eat, Drink, Watch” — the weekly newsletter for people who want to order takeout and watch TV. Browse the archives and subscribe now.
I’ve written down some notes on one of the most surprising documentaries of the year and put together a list of the week’s food-themed entertainment news. Up first, the movie:
Holy Chicken was a popular fast food place known for its tasty fried chicken and mission to help the community. However, the restaurant suddenly shut down in 2022, after being open for 5 years. This made the regular customers very sad. This article will go into great detail about the different things that caused Holy Chicken to fail.
The Rise and Fall of Holy Chicken
Founder John Smith wanted to offer high-quality chicken that was sourced in an ethical way in a fast-casual setting. He opened Holy Chicken in 2015. The restaurant became popular right away because it cared about being open and environmentally friendly. People flocked to Holy Chicken for its tasty chicken dishes made with chickens that were raised in humane ways.
Within a few years, Holy Chicken quickly grew by opening restaurants in major cities across the country. The future looked bright for the growing brand. However, Holy Chicken was dealing with a number of problems behind the scenes that would eventually bring it down.
The Reasons Behind the Closure
There were several key factors that contributed to Holy Chicken’s closure in 2022:
Declining Sales and Revenues
Even though Holy Chicken had early success, it had a hard time keeping sales growing over time. Revenues went down because of shifting consumer tastes, a saturated market, and changes in the economy. Without steady cash flow, the business faced increasing financial strain.
Rising Operating Costs
From ingredients to labor to rent, costs were rising across the board for the restaurant industry. Key expenses like chicken, cooking oil, and produce got more expensive due to inflation and supply chain disruptions. Simultaneously, Holy Chicken had to raise wages to retain staff amidst labor shortages. Their prime locations came with high rents too. These factors squeezed profit margins.
Fierce Competition
The fast casual space grew extremely competitive with both large chains and smaller brands offering similar menu items. Deep-pocketed competitors ran aggressive promotions and discounts to lure away customers. New entrants continued to fragment the market. Keeping up was an uphill battle.
Failure to Innovate
Holy Chicken did not innovate quickly enough to respond to shifting consumer preferences. Their core menu stayed stagnant for years. Competitors introduced healthier, more diverse options while Holy Chicken fell behind consumer demand.
Internal Mismanagement
Behind the scenes, inefficiencies and ineffective leadership created additional stumbling blocks. Inventory and operations mismanagement led to waste and losses. Marketing campaigns lacked clear direction and impact. The brand failed to adapt and change course.
Pandemic Pressures
COVID-19 dealt a devastating blow to the already struggling restaurant. Temporary closures and reduced capacity slashed revenues. Higher costs and supply chain turmoil added insult to injury. The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin.
In the face of these mounting challenges, Holy Chicken could not remain viable over the long-term and made the difficult decision to close all locations and cease operations.
Lessons Learned
While unfortunate, Holy Chicken’s story is instructive for other restaurants. Here are some key lessons to be learned:
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Adapt Quickly: Brands need to be nimble, innovative and ready to change based on consumer demand and market conditions. Sticking rigidly to the same old offerings can be dangerous.
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Control Costs: Rent, labor, ingredients – costs are rising everywhere. Restaurants need to run tight operations, manage inventories wisely, and budget cautiously.
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Differentiate: Standing out from the crowd is vital, especially for small brands competing with chains. Creative menus, quality ingredients, great service and the like are differentiation opportunities.
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Do Marketing Right: Marketing needs strategic direction, consistent messaging, optimal budget allocation and regular evaluation. Failing to connect with customers can be fatal.
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Plan for Disruption: Black swan events like COVID-19 can wreck budgets and plans. Build in contingency funds, streamline operations, train staff for flexibility.
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Mind the Management: Vision, innovation, efficiency – success depends heavily on leadership. Internal dysfunction reflects quickly in the customer experience.
Had Holy Chicken proactively addressed challenges, leveraged its strengths better and laid the foundations for agility, the outcome could potentially have been different. There are always lessons in business failures.
Could Holy Chicken Rise Again?
Given the brand recognition and customer love for Holy Chicken, many wonder if the restaurant could make a comeback:
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A revival with a modified business model, more efficient operations and better aligned menu could potentially work if timed right.
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Strategic partnerships with other brands could provide a jumpstart through access to capital, suppliers, technology etc.
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Transitioning to a leaner operation focused on online ordering, delivery, and a streamlined menu might be a viable path forward.
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Testing the waters with a few locations before going all in would help de-risk a relaunch.
While challenging, resurrection stories are not uncommon in the restaurant world. Ultimately, it would come down to recalibrating the business to address past mistakes and meet current customer needs. Only time will tell if the Holy Chicken brand takes flight again.
The Final Chapter?
Holy Chicken’s closure no doubt left a gap in the communities and lives it served. When beloved brands fall, it prompts reflection and nostalgia about what made them so special. For now, Holy Chicken is firmly in the past, but its legacy remains.
The restaurant industry will continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Changing tastes, new technologies, and unexpected events will shape its landscape. Nimbleness and vision will be key for survival. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from Holy Chicken’s experience after all.
A Super Size Me sequel that probably should have stayed in the vaults
Morgan Spurlock’s hit 2004 fast food documentary Super Size Me got a follow-up movie called Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! The most surprising thing about this movie is that it came out at all.
The movie was filmed three years ago, and premiered to mostly positive reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. But shortly after signing a distribution deal with YouTube Red, Spurlock dropped a bombshell confession outlining his history of sexual misconduct. The statement noted a decades-old rape allegation, numerous acts of cheating on his partners, and a sexual harassment claim involving a young woman who worked for the filmmaker at his production company, Warrior Poets, that was settled out of court. Spurlock completely disappeared from the public eye after his confession, and YouTube Red dropped the movie. For over a year, Super Size Me 2 seemed all but dead until distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films made a surprise announcement over the summer that it was going to release the film.
The film, released last week in select theaters and as a video-on-demand, makes no mention of Spurlock’s confession or anything that happened since its festival debut. Instead, this is the same documentary that appeared at TIFF two years ago: A lively tale of Spurlock’s attempt to raise a flock of poultry and open a tongue-in-cheek fried chicken sandwich restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.
Spurlock’s interviews with brand consultants and commercial food experts are by far the most interesting and fun parts of the movie. These experts explain the “health halo” that all the big chains are crazy about right now, which is a magic mix of trendy ingredients and packaging that makes junk food look healthy in the eyes of many customers. Super Size Me 2 also clearly shows the problems small chicken farmers face because of the “tournament system,” in which payouts from companies like Tyson are based on how well chicken coops are ranked. An episode of Netflix’s excellent docuseries Rotten went into much more detail about this system that seems to be corrupt.
The film culminates in the well-publicized opening of Spurlock’s fast-food restaurant, Holy Chicken, with the documentarian shaking hands, posing for photos, and ringing up customers who all seem starstruck by the filmmaker. At the end of the doc, Suplock mentions that he’s received calls from potential investors with franchise offers. But as it turns out, Holy Chicken was just a four-day pop-up, and, aside from a similarly temporary run in Manhattan this month, there have been no announcements about plans to open any future iterations of the restaurant.
While promoting the new film, Spurlock has been candid about his past behavior and how his confession completely torpedoed the film’s original release (it also prompted most of the Warrior Poets staff to quit). It sounds like the filmmaker, now 600+ days sober, is trying to make amends. But there’s still something unsettling about Super Size Me 2 itself not addressing his sexual misconduct and the fallout that resulted from it, because the film itself is as much about Spurlock as it is about the poultry industry — the word “me” is even in the damn title of the movie.
Everyone knows Spurlock as the guy who became famous for eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month — even the farmers who he’s trying to buy chicken from. The movie includes several scenes filmed at the Warrior Poets office, and the whole movie is framed around the idea that Spurlock is such a charismatic showman that he’s going to shake up the fast-food industry with yet another clever stunt. It’s clear, while watching the movie, that Spurlock is operating from a position of power. But as we know, behind the scenes, he was abusing that power. For this reason, it’s particularly unnerving to hear Spurlock tell the camera early in the film, “Now, if I’ve learned anything out of making a career out of questionable life choices, it’s that sometimes the only way to find the truth and solve a problem is to become a part of that problem.”
During an interview with Business Insider this month, Spurlock said that it was “impossible” to edit himself out of the documentary because, “You’re following me for the whole movie.” My hunch is that if Spurlock — an award-winning filmmaker with dozens of movie credits to his name — really wanted to, he could have at least made some changes to place more emphasis on the people who work in the chicken industry, and found some way to address the recent developments in his life. But by ignoring the controversy altogether, the documentary feels less like a food world exposé from the vaults, and more like a bizarre attempt at brand rehabilitation for Morgan Spurlock in the post-#MeToo era.
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! is now available to stream on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and iTunes.
In other entertainment news…
Have a great weekend everyone, and if you’re looking for something to do with those late summer tomatoes, I highly recommend checking out this savory tart recipe from East Hampton’s most famous chef, Ina Garten.
What Happened To Morgan Spurlock Holy Chicken? – The Documentary Reel
FAQ
What happened to the Holy Chicken?
Spurlock released a sequel film, Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, in 2017, to be distributed by YouTube Red, but it was dropped following Spurlock’s admission of sexual misconduct. Samuel Goldwyn Films instead distributed the film in September 2019.
Does the Holy Chicken restaurant still exist?
But as it turns out, Holy Chicken was just a four-day pop-up, and, aside from a similarly temporary run in Manhattan this month, there have been no announcements about plans to open any future iterations of the restaurant.
Why did so many churches chicken close?
Church’s Chicken restaurants have closed for a variety of reasons, including Franchisee failure. Some Church’s Chicken locations have closed due to a franchisee failing to meet standards or owing back taxes.
Who is the owner of Holy Chicken?
The movie starts with a bunch of news clips about the grand opening of a new fast food restaurant owned by Morgan Spurlock, who is best known for his documentary Super Size Me, which is about what happens when you only eat at McDonald’s for a month.