ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
KFC hasn't officially been called Kentucky Fried Chicken for decades. But come on. People go there for the chicken.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Of course you go for the chicken. Take away the chicken; why even bother to open - which is what is happening in the United Kingdom right now. KFC's outgoing message to unhappy customers explains.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: We are currently having some problems with our new delivery partner. No deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed, and others are operating a limited menu or shortened hours.
SHAPIRO: About 420 KFC stores across the U.K. are affected. That's about half of all the outlets there.
KELLY: You know, it turns out British people really love their Southern fried chicken. This has been so disruptive that desperate Britons have turned to their members of Parliament and to the police.
SHAPIRO: London police tweeted, please do not contact us about the #KFCCrisis. It is not a police matter if your favorite eatery is not serving the menu that you desire.
KELLY: And up in Manchester, police are hearing about it, too. Sergeant Richard Garland sent us this message.
RICHARD GARLAND: But we do - really do feel their pain, as many of us are partial to the colonel's masterpiece ourselves. However, the lack of chicken is not really a police matter. I'm sure the colonel will have the matter sorted soon.
SHAPIRO: Of course in a somewhat silly crisis, Internet troublemakers will swoop in - in this case, Lee Marshall, aka, DiscoBoyUK.
KELLY: He got some KFC uniforms, and he went to a supermarket called ASDA's in Kent with a friend to fill a shopping cart with chickens. People thought it was real. They filmed it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Look at this. KFC's just shut down, and they're in ASDA's (laughter). There's KFC, and (laughter) they're carrying chickens in it. Is this actually going to (laughter) - is this actually going to KFC?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: It's going to KFC.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Unintelligible, laughter).
SHAPIRO: For a nation that showed such great resolve during the Great London Fire, Dunkirk, The Blitz, comedian Paul Chuckle says this panic seems out of place.
PAUL CHUCKLE: It's not a normal - for normal English people to do, by the way.
SHAPIRO: But he understands the uproar. He is a KFC lover himself and was excited to find a KFC with chicken this week.
CHUCKLE: I was traveling back north and stopped on the motorway, and they got chicken in the KFC. So I ordered chicken with fries and coleslaw, got back in the car. And I got the chicken and the fries but no coleslaw. So I thought perhaps they've run out of vegetables as well. Who knows?
KELLY: A coleslaw shortage - now, that would be news. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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