cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/4802929

TIL A restaurant in Long Beach, CA, was found to be serving Popeye’s chicken and passing it off as their own. They would buy the chicken at Popeyes and upcharge for their own chicken and waffles d…

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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Bluest_waters on 2024-12-31 23:25:54+00:00.

Original Title: TIL A restaurant in Long Beach, CA, was found to be serving Popeye’s chicken and passing it off as their own. They would buy the chicken at Popeyes and upcharge for their own chicken and waffles dish. Once found out the owner refused to apologize.

    • Jamablaya@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      No. I run a bar and don’t deal with Sysco whatsoever. Fucking garbage is what they bring. For example, the boxes of wings i get cost 80 dollars more than sysco wings, but they’re old breed chickens with thick skins and strong bones, non rubbery meat, they don’t grow to market weight in anywhere near the time the modern NA meat breeds do, these chickens taste like 1985. I don’t have to batter them, they don’t taste like shit. The extra money is worth it in customers actually wanting to eat the food here.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Exactly. This is why every Americanized Chinese buffet tastes the same. Same for sports bars and so many other restaurants. They all get their food from either Sysco or Shamrock.

      • Jamablaya@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        Lol. I do get Butter Chicken sauce from a distributor by the bucket, that’s why butter chicken tastes the same in every hindu restaurant on this continent. However, I use it for Butter Chicken Onion Rings, have yet to see that anywhere else.

  • Higgs boson@dubvee.org
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    2 days ago

    Yeap. It do be like that. I once worked for an “ISP” computer shop that re-sold NetZero dialup and de-badged eMachines. (No surprise the owner was an ex-con who has since done time again.)

    What if I told you most retail businesses - including restaurants - are just middlemen marking things up that you could buy cheaper elsewhere?

    Restaurants, in particular, are famously difficult to operate at a profit. So if your local chicken place isn’t way more expensive, and slower, and/or poor quality it’s probably because they take shortcuts. Very very few places are making things from scratch.

    • Jamablaya@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      You got me there, burgers from scratch, but I have to tell people I haven’t seen before that this isn’t fast food, it’s gonna be a half hour. I premake and freeze the patties, but it takes nearly ten minutes ( in this old ass radiation king dial microwave from the 80s i found new in a box, that thaws meat without cooking it) to thaw just one patty, although I make 3/4 pounders

  • jetA
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    3 days ago

    99% of restaurants are just reselling Sysco food anyway

    • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 days ago

      Many, many people need to realize that there are like 3 companies that own all food distribution in the US. People aren’t talking out the ass when they say “late-stage capitalism”

    • Waldowal@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Exactly. The headline could just as easily read “Customers discover their $30 meal is made with the same prepackaged food they serve down the street at a school cafeteria.”

      • ...m...@ttrpg.network
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        2 days ago

        …last week i learned that the cafeteria food i grew up with was scratch-made; the reason it tasted the same everywhere wasn’t because they all bought prepared foods from the same distributors, but because they all used the same USDA-provided recipes…

    • TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      After working in enough sysco-based restaurants I fucking hate eating out because that’s all I can taste is sysco products. I only eat at places that make their stuff from scratch and that’s hard to find, and spendy. But worth it.

  • x00z@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I don’t actually have a proper kitchen back there

    Great thing to say as a restaurant owner.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    3 days ago

    At a certain level every restaurant is up selling something from someone, if not Popeye, then the local supermarket, local wholesaler, butcher, farmer, family member …

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    I worked at a restaurant that didn’t stock all fruit/veg. When somebody ordered something they’d send me across the street to the grocery store, and then I’d bring the stuff through the back entrance. Seems similar here

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Yes, sure but same happens for cooked stuff… You know almost every restaurant buys their premade food from a vendor right? Then the restaurant just reheats it–unless you are eating at a place that is doing all dishes from scratch… But that is rare these days.

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Sometimes at the pizza joint we would get bad mushrooms from the truck. They were presliced and maybe someone let them set out at the factory? But sometimes they’d be slimy right off the truck. I’d toss them out, place a refund request, and then go to Kroger at 2-3AM after we closed to buy all their button mushrooms and slice them up.

      Even more rare that we’d be so low I would go buy out two Kroger’s. They aren’t even 24 hour anymore. It’s a shame, grocery shopping in the middle of the night after work was pretty nice.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      3 days ago

      I’m fine with getting ingredients needed to actually make the food, but if I go to your restaurant and order what is, supposedly, your food and you’re just going to the place across the street and serving me that for more money I’d be pretty pissed.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      From the article:

      The restaurant’s troubles started after a customer allegedly saw Sweet Dixie employees carrying Popeyes boxes into the kitchen.

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          That would be maybe even more damning. The employees of a fried chicken place getting their own food from across the street would send me running from that place.

    • jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 days ago

      I mean if they keep getting from the same place, or even area, people are going to catch on. They’d presumably be getting a lot of chicken weekly, if not daily and probably sent the same person to pick it up every time.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        From the article she had a deal with Popeyes and got a bunch of chicken twice a day. It’s capitalism baby. I don’t think she did anything more wrong than Panera bread microwaving soup from a bag.

      • jetA
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        3 days ago

        I bet it was the Popeyes staff… see the same people all day… Lol… You have to tip out the back of the house or they are going to rat you out!!!

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      This strat is not as effective as vegans think it is for changing people’s minds. I don’t know what works, but this one’s clearly not it.

    • jetA
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      3 days ago

      I’m afraid that is the human position in the circle of life.

      It would be nice if humans could just absorb nutrition directly from sunlight and the soil.

      As humans exist today, they need to consume energy and resources prepared by other life forms, be it fungi, bacteria, plants, or animals.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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        3 days ago

        Animals. I said animals.

        Humans can live off of plants just fine. Billions (trillions?) of us have for centuries.

        • jetA
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          3 days ago

          Plants are alive. Why are animals special?

            • jetA
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              16 hours ago

              If you do it with the intent to harm life, yes.

              Your just not empathetic to one.

              But let’s use your puppy example, if you only feed your puppy plant food, they are going to suffer. That’s ok?

              • Sunshine (she/her)@lemmy.ca
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                12 hours ago

                So the intent is the only thing what matters here. Not the fact that puppies have central nervous systems that process pain while plants do not. Plant do not feel pain and you know it. Use better arguments.

                Dogs can thrive on plant-based diets, so you’re litterally spreading lies.

                • jetA
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                  9 hours ago

                  so you’re litterally spreading lies.

                  Since we can’t be civil, I’m just going to block you so we don’t have to interact. I’m happy to have productive discussions, if you think I’m mistaken or misinformed, educate me. But hostile assumption of my motivations is where I draw the line.

                  On a final parting note: https://doi.org/10.1111/jpn.12794

                  Based on raw data energy intake, the dogs selected an average macronutrient P:F:C ratio of 38:59:3% (by energy) during the study.

          • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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            3 days ago

            There’s a climate catastrophe, did you notice? Largely its caused by burning fossil fuels and the animal industries.

            • jetA
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              Sustainable, and regenerative farming for the food supply is a cause I can get behind.

              Locally sourced food is good for food independence and famine resistance. I’m on board.

              I found this talk on sustainable ruminant agriculture fascinating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmwobXCc4c

              One of the biggest things we could change, is moving away from grain fed animals. Which frees up the fields making the grain, the fertilizer for the grain… get the animals back to eating pasture/grass. A cow can produce 5kg of milk solids (protein!!!) per day, just eating grass (which no human can eat anyway)… Animals eating their natural diet are much more sustainable for the planet. Not to mention 15% of the earths surface is range land, not suitable for crops, but suitable for ruminants. Cultivated land is only 4% of earths surface, from that 4% we have to get all of our plant based foods. 15% > 4% so animal food has a place in a sustainable food supply

              Then there is the discussion of how effective different foods are, if you need to eat 3kg of plant based food to hit the minimum RDA vs 300g of animal based foods, even if the animal food has a higher footprint it has to be measured in the context of human impact. https://hackertalks.com/post/5606539

              Most people are already eating a massively plant based diet, something like 80% of people’s diets in the world comes from plants, and people, especially women, are woefully under eating their protein requirements!

              Ahh Jagged circle down voted this, so I suspect they don’t actually care about sustainability, and their objection is something else. Pity, we could have had a productive discussion.

            • Auli@lemmy.ca
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              2 days ago

              Most of the pollution comes from the ships doesn’t it? Not that it stilloant a very efficient way to transport stuff but all this talk of cars when the shipping industry is far larger.

              • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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                No. I think the animal industry is about half when you measure in carbon equivalent units. Some greenhouse gasses (eg methane) are way worse than carbon dioxide per ton, so you have to convert it to co2 equivalent to see the big picture.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          And if we evolved to eat plants we would be prey. Ever wonder why the smartest animals eat meat?

    • enbyecho@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You know there’s a place where you can do the jagged vegan circle jerk all you want.