Popeye's Chicken Sandwich

In a surprising move, Popeye’s Louisiana Chicken recently added a chicken sandwich to their menu. To try it, I recently went to the Popeye’s on Emmet St. with a few friends and we were greeted with a long line of cars. After finally getting through the line, we were politely told that they were all out of the sandwiches and wouldn’t have any more until the following week. We of course left, because fried chicken without a brioche bun just wasn’t going to cut it. As we left, we again made our way through the thick traffic going in and out of Popeye’s. My friend mentioned how the new sandwich must have increased the demand for Popeye’s. After getting home, a quick Google search showed that our experience was not unique.

         Along with the expected increase in demand for Popeye’s, there has been a significant increase in traffic around their locations: a negative consumption externality. While we initially assumed this was included in the cost borne by consumers, further research found that some people have no interest in Popeye’s chicken sandwiches and even more striking, some people don’t even like friend chicken. Thus, the increase in traffic means the social marginal benefit curve is less than the consumer marginal benefit curve. There is no Coasian solution to this, because the large majority of these roads are public roads and have no enforceable property rights. A possible solution would be a government tax or regulation on these chicken sandwiches to lower demand to the optimal level. This measure would account for the total value of these sandwiches to society and the cost of the traffic. However, to know this, we would need to do a lot more research on the exact statistics and more importantly, we need to taste the sandwich (when its back in stock).