KFC fast-food chain and the consumption habit of fried chicken bucket in Brazil: a periodization proposal

Abstract

This article’s proposal is to dwell on the implementation of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) American fast-food chain, specialized in fried chicken buckets, in Belo Horizonte (MG). It aims to a “periodization” of the company’s three attempts at settling itself in the country, emphasizing the diffusion and resistances of fried chicken bucket consumption. The proposal incorporates the development of national competitor chains or local establishments which mirror the KFC concept, many times preceding its appearance – that is, the habit of eating fried chicken bucket may have settled before the own chain which created it and spread it. Besides that, it is noted in the capital of Minas Gerais, a relevant number of small local restaurants specialized in fried chicken bucket, adapting its original concept before their financial, technical and organizational limitations. Finally, it is believed that these restaurants created an expressive heterogeneity of forms and flows in Belo Horizonte’s territory, empirically revealing not only the spread of a globalizing eating habit but also forms of adaptation that we name “tropical flexibility” (SANTOS, 1996).