Chik-fil-A Just Made A BIG Mistake (Following Tyson Foods) | The Economic Ninja

Hello, everyone. Economic ninja here. I hope you’re doing well. We’re going to be talking about a big change that Chickfila just announced. And ironically, it is on the heels of an announcement that Tyson Foods made earlier in the year. Actually, it was mid 2023. We’re going to go over this story. There’s a lot of changes happening in the food industry and I’m going to explain the reason why.

They really have their hands tied. But it’s going to be very interesting to see how chick fil a weathers this because quite frankly, a lot of people have went to eat there in the past because of their antibiotic free chickens. They love the taste of the food. They really like the ambiance that that company has built. I love the fact that all of the employees are always super happy and friendly.

I mean, just very kind. But this is going to be very interesting because this is a great lesson in economics, where companies are being squeezed out due to lack of profits, slowing sales in the face of many companies, like other fast food giants, having to raise their prices to insane levels due to out of control money printing by the government, and foolish works on the part of the Federal Reserve when it comes to monetary policy.

So without further ado, we’re going to dive right into this story. It’s out of NBC News. It’s entitled Chick fil a announces shift from no antibiotics in Chicken pledge. If any of you have been to a chick fil a, type one, if you have, curious, type two if you haven’t. They have a lot of pledges posted and one of those pledge is that they will sell chicken free of antibiotics.

All right. They’ve made it a staple of their business and we’re going to get into the Tyson story next because I think that’s very interesting. It says it will now only avoid antibiotics commonly used in human medicine. Chickfila announced its no antibiotic pledge in 2014. It says here, Chickfila says it will no longer adhere to its pledge of serving antibiotic free chicken. In a statement released Monday, the fast food company said that starting this spring it would serve chicken that was free only of antibiotics important to human medicine or those commonly used to treat people.

It said its poultry going forward may have been raised with animal antibiotics, though only if the animal and those around it were to become sick. The chicken will continue to be free of artificial preservatives, steroids and added hormones, it said. Chickfila announced its no antibiotic pledge back in 2014, but amid an avian flu outbreak that devastated poultry supplies nationwide, chicken farmers who previously sought to avoid antibiotics have been forced to turn to them.

Last July, food processing giant Tyson announced it was ending its no antibiotics ever pledge. Poultry producer Purdue Farms still has its pledge in place, while rival Pilgrim’s pride says it uses. Know, it’s very interesting to see these companies that right now are still at that pledge point where they’re saying, hey, we are not going to raise these chickens with these added antibiotics. However, it comes at a cost.

The bird flu did wipe out massive, massive amounts of birds in the last few years and it does cause the cost of those chickens to be more expensive. Right. We’ve seen throughout history, in recent history where chickens are getting shot up with all kinds of things like steroids. They look like they’re Arnold Schwarzenegger walking out of the gym in his mid twenty s. And companies use those chicken because the chicken meat per ounce is cheaper and they want to pass savings on and be the low cost leader.

You go down to Walmart and target and you could see these chicken breasts were like the size of my head. You’re going, what in the heck was wrong with that chicken? But this is where we’re at because we are being squeezed right now. Our economy through inflation says while world health officials have long raised concerns about the potential of any antibiotics in food to degrade the human’s body immunity to disease treatments, the Food and Drug Administration has said it’s more concerned about the use of antibiotics commonly prescribed to humans than ones used to treat animal illnesses.

Just throwing this out there. Type four if you do not trust the Food and Drug Administration or the world health officials, type five if you think they’re completely okay and they are to be trusted. I do not trust them. So now let’s dive over to this Tyson story because this is where you’ve got the problem with companies like Chick fil a making these agreements to say, hey, we’re not going to serve food that’s pumped up with antibiotics.

We want to provide healthy food. But the problem is at what cost? See, when your main customer makes X and that’s where you sell your food at is where your main customer has the money to buy it once your food gets too expensive. And McDonald’s just went through this where their CEO came out during an earnings call and said, look, we have seen about 40% of our average customer walk away and stop eating at McDonald’s because they simply do not have enough money to pay for a big Mac or a happy meal.

Now they have to go to cheaper alternatives. When you have the companies that are hurting now, you look at the suppliers, Tyson was and is a massive producer of chicken right now. They process them, they buy them from chicken farms. They have their own chicken farms. But my point being is they’re a big producer. Now, back here in July, Tyson made the announcement Tyson will stop using its no antibiotics ever label on chickens.

It says here again, back in July, Tyson will once again use certain antibiotics in his chickens, eight years after it announced plans to ditch the drugs in some of its production and slapped a no antibiotics label on its packaging. Now, it’s interesting, but it makes sense. Around 2014, there was a massive push, a massive news cycle about the dangers of antibiotics and what was going on in these animals.

And so a lot of companies decided to jump on this no antibiotics bandwagon and really save face in front of the public. Now, what’s interesting is now it’s flipping. We’re going back to using animals that will have these antibiotics in them, right? Says about half of us poultry farmers use some form of antibiotics to keep its chickens healthy. The company noted. In many chicken farms, animals are raised in crowded and unsanitary conditions and can be prone to disease.

At Tyson Foods, we base our decision on sound science and an evolving understanding on sound science, just like what happened with COVID of the best practices impacting our customers, consumers and the animals in our care. A Tyson Foods spokesperson said in a statement. Very interesting times where we have big suppliers having to go to cheaper alternatives, which is now squeezing about six, eight months later, the companies themselves that sell the end product, the produced chick fil a sandwiches, or other companies.

Now, what’s really interesting to me is the Tyson Foods boycott once it was announced. And there is this massive campaign right now by fact checkers that are probably being paid by Tyson to come out and say, we’re not doing it, we’re not hiring these illegal immigrants. We didn’t set up a list, we didn’t track them. Just like Bloomberg reported, right? Fox News is coming out and reporting this and they’re actually pointing the blame at channels like this.

Social media. Social media is the culprit, really. I got my information from Fox News or from Bloomberg and I just re reported it. It blows me away because what a lot of people don’t realize is the news cycle is built in a way to suppress the truth. They actually tell you the truth because then they can’t be blamed, they being the powers of b that run the world media.

But social media is a whole nother animal. Let me ask you this. How many of you, once you heard about the layoff in Iowa where they were laying off a massive amount of this small town’s jobs, they’re just killing them, right? Like 1260 jobs completely gone. And then you heard the news about Tyson going out and hiring and actually actively trying to campaign for and find illegal immigrants to hire.

How many of you decided, I’m going to boycot them? Type six. I’m just curious how many people decided to boycot. There’s a lot of power in what’s happening right now. Just recently in the news, about four months ago, five months ago, there was a little bit of a mess up with Chickfila. Chick fil A announced a diversity program. They wanted to make sure everything was diverse and nice jumping on the diversity bandwagon.

And in my opinion, type seven, if you agree, diversity, the word diversity is just a really nice way of explaining racism because what you’re trying to do is we’re including or we’re inclusive, but what we’re trying to do is alienate one group and uplift another group, right? Why can’t we just all be friends and get along? But that’s what’s going on. And that diversity, they made a minister of diversity but is like a vp of diversity and that blew back on them like fire.

Now they’re going to be getting some. And it’s in the news right now. Chick fil A is backpedaling and saying, and I’ll pull it up really quick. It’s really interesting. Check this out. Chick fil A. Let me find it real quick here. I know we’re live. This is rough, but I just saw this come through and it’s exactly like what happened with Tyson. Antibiotics. Let’s see here. There’s all these stories and they said they’re backtracking on their announcement.

I can’t find it right now, but I found one news story, just like I did with Tyson, where they turned around, they said, hey, we’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. And the flood. The response from the public is so intense, they’re trying to figure out what did we just do? I wonder what the cost difference would be on a chickfila sandwich if they continue to buy antibiotic free chicken.

I wonder if the juice was worth the squeeze in this situation. Would it cost a dollar more? I have to be honest with you again. I’ve studied the Chick fil a franchise business. I’ve read four books on Truett Cathy and his family and how they started. I’m absolutely impressed with that company and how they have stayed private for so long and become so big. There really is a powerhouse when it comes to training their employees and all that stuff.

Wouldn’t it be cool if chick fil a turned around and watched all this bad press and said, you know what? We can give people a decision. We could make two sandwiches and we could put them side by side and say, do you want the antibiotic free one? Can you imagine that? Being on their menu? Type eleven, if you’re here feeling this right now and you think this would be a good idea, and it’s this x price, it’s going to be more expensive and then you’re going to see the other one.

This one has antibiotics and it’s this price. Maybe the sandwich looks a little different. Whatever. Wouldn’t it be amazing to watch how they sell side by side in the same restaurant with the same culture, the same history? Wouldn’t it be awesome to watch how well they sell? I have to be honest with you. I think it would be groundbreaking. I’ve never heard of a restaurant having to switch their entire menu, like, what’s going into their meats or their ingredients and go, we’re going to go side by side.

We’re going to let you decide. It would actually probably bring them the opposite of what’s happening right now, the negative press, and it would explode higher. Just a thought. Let me know down below in the comment section what you’re planning on doing if you’re going to keep supporting chickfila with the change in mean. And they said it right here. What’s it called? I’m just going to repeat it one more time.

It’s called a. No, it was something bigger than that. A pledge. They’re breaking the pledge. Type twelve if you’re going to hold them accountable to breaking their pledge, or type 13 if you’re like, you know what, it’s okay, I totally understand. I’m just curious to see what you guys think. Hope you have a great night. The economic ninja is out. Bye. .

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