Why aren’t food chains in the same area all halal?

Posted by ZenDoesReps@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 18 comments

I will preface this by saying this isn’t an attempt to start a discussing around whether you disagree with halal, but it’s more of a business question. So this is aimed more at business and franchise owners but of course happy to hear anyone’s thoughts. Some food chains, such as Nando’s, KFC, Subway, have stores that will serve halal food. What I’ve noticed is that some areas will have multiple stores but only one or some of them will do halal. For example, in a city near me there are two Nando’s within 2 miles of each other but only one sells halal food. Exactly the same with KF but the two stores are even closer. My understanding is that franchisees have to order specific stock that the company will allow them to, so that no matter what Subway or KFC you go to, it should taste the same. It would make sense then for there to be one distributor, at least in that area, so if one is halal or none are halal, then so should the rest etc (standardised basically). So my questions are: - Why do some chains/franchises in the same location have halal and others do not? - How much discretion do franchisees have over ordering/not ordering halal product?

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18 Comments

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Harrry-Otter@reddit

I’d imagine it takes into account the other stuff on the menu. Both KFC and Subway do (or at least did) have pork products on their menus. If you’re in a big Muslim population area, it’s probably worth not selling the pork stuff and being a halal verified branch. If you’re not, then you might as well do the pork. In your example of a city, presumably the idea is that both people who want a halal option and a porky option both have a branch they can visit easily.

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

Yeah that does make sense. I know halal Subways replace all pork with Turkey so I suppose it’s giving people the choice to go to one they’d rather eat at

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hamstershoe@reddit

>I know halal Subways replace all pork with Turkey A business question ? The Turkey in your subway sandwich has had its throat cut in a special way by a religious extremist ?

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

Not particularly interested in a debate about whether you think halal is ethical, although saying ‘religious extremist’ does make you sound somewhat silly. I’m sure you’re a vegan with your high regard for animal standards and I’m happy for you :)

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hamstershoe@reddit

Its hard to avoid the debate when it comes to halal and people being very upset about it. Not eating an animal unless it was killed in a certain religious way is silly and extreme. I'm not a vegan.

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SquidsAlien@reddit

Because some people, such as me, think halal is barbaric and refuse to eat it.

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smalltortoise1@reddit

Good job no one asked for your opinion on what you think of halal meat then isn’t it!

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Kalliban27@reddit

But it is answering the question. Let's say every Nandos in a city centre is Halal, you will then lose some customers. If it's a split then customers can choose

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HuskerDude247@reddit

What do you think about Kosher meat?

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

Funnily enough, I have never seen anywhere advertised as serving kosher meat - have you seen it anywhere? Those that observe halal diets are able to eat kosher meat, but those observing kosher diets cannot eat halal meat

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

Thanks for sharing.

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tmstms@reddit

A LOT of chains have many franchised outlets, so presumably it can be decided on an individual basis by managers / franchise owners etc.

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ResponsibleLeave6653@reddit

Franchised locations have different managers who attribute different levels of impact to halal. I assume.

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

I don’t think I made it very clear from the question but let’s say you have the two KFCs in my example. They have to order from a specific place, so that it tastes the same no matter which KFC you go to. Would KFC allow their franchisees to have various options to order from? Wouldn’t it make sense to have the stores in the same area to order from one approved supplier, to better standardise the taste? For anyone reading, this isn’t necessarily an argument in favour of making everywhere halal. I’m just wondering from the supply chain perspective why two or more in the same area have different suppliers tbh

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Cleveland_Grackle@reddit

Maybe it's cheaper for non-halal, thus they (at least some companies) take into account the demographic of each store's location?

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ZenDoesReps@reddit (OP)

The most common sense answer for sure. I just wonder how they know how the demographic would react to it when they open stores that start with halal. There’s a Nando’s in Westfield in Stratford that isn’t halal and I was surprised when I saw it, especially as most of the other food places in the same centre is halal and the demographic that would eat halal is relatively high there

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MrNippyNippy@reddit

I’m guessing it’s a business decision based on customer base. Personally I will do my utmost to avoid halal.

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