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Why Extra Piece of Chicken? It’s based on a true story (with some embellishment).

The first time I ever went to Popeyes…

I was in the Popeyes drive thru and asked for the three piece chicken strips.

They asked me, “Would you like regular or spicy?”

I was in a spicy mood, “Spicy please!”

I drove around to the drive thru window and, as I always do, I inspected the contents of the  box as they gave me my order. There was a biscuit, as ordered, but unexpectedly, there looked to be four maybe five pieces of chicken in the box!

I looked up to the young female attendant, and smiled grudgingly. Obviously I thought, the young lady must have had designs on me.

“Is everything okay sir?”

“Yes, yes of course, I have my three-piece chicken dinner order, I’m all set.”

“Have a nice day.”

Oh my! How uncomfortable, five pieces of chicken, though delicious, had thrown me for a loop. I felt like I’d either ripped off the Popeye’s corporation (I believe they are located in Atlanta, so I’d have to send a check for the difference to their corporate office) or that I had an admirer at the local Popeyes, which although flattering was not going to be of any use since I’m happily married.

I decided about one week later to give them another try.

I drove up to the Popeye’s drive thru and asked for the three piece chicken strips. “Regular or Spicy?” they asked me.

Hmmm, I decided to change it up, mix them up, test the situation, “Regular please!”

I drove around to the drive thru window and once again I inspected the contents of the box as they gave me my order. There was a biscuit, as ordered, but this time I could see it clearly, there were five pieces of chicken in the box.

This time the young male attendant smiled as our transaction was complete and said, “Thank you sir, hope you have a great day.”

I smiled grudgingly. Apparently many of the young folks at Popeyes must like older gentleman like myself. I was uneasy. “Yes, yes of course, I have my three-piece chicken dinner order and I will have a nice day.”

Many more trips to Popeyes ended up the same way – They must LOVE me there!

Yes! I’ve still got it or…

Dammit, I’d eaten at least 30-50 extra pices of chicken in a years time.

Was I special or a criminal??

Fast Forward…

I forgot to mention I’m an innovation consultant, I get to work with some of the smartest people in the consumer package goods industry.

As luck would have it, I was afforded the opportunity to  work with the former Popeye’s R&D director – I’ll change her name to Judy.

“Judy,” I exclaimed, “what’s with the folks that work at Popeyes, they either love me, or can’t count.”

She was inquisitive, “Tell me more.”

I explained the story

She smiled, with a smile that was like saying, “this poor man has issues”.

“Marco, that’s lagniappe!”

“Lagniappe?” I asked.

“Yes, its a cajun term that means Underpromise, Overdeliver.”

I was incredulous, “No, really, they like me.”

“Well they like everybody, that’s the way it works at Popeyes.”

I felt like an idiot. All my life I was taught to not do anything for free, that people would take advantage of you. The US is built on capitalism and this lagniappe thing went against the grain of everything that commerce is built on, right?

This whole lagniappe thing could start a whole tidal wave of issues. I was always taught that free things just don’t have the same value, they don’t taste the same, they are expendable. I was taught that when you do something for someone that they owed you at least the same.

Unless…

You just felt like doing it.

Unless the good folks from Popeye’s had figured out they could afford to do it.

Unless folks, like Popeye’s, and others who practice this type of nonsense realized the importance of incredible unquestioning loyalty from their consumers.

Unless this tactic was the equivalent of what great relationships are built on

I don’t know, like rubbing my wife’s feet for no reason other than to be a good husband, (I’ve done that like twice and it was nice) or like taking out the trash before being asked, (hmm not sure I’ve tried that yet).

This made me ponder - Lagniappe changes everything!

We have become such a quid pro quo society. Its disconcerting when someone does something for us with no expectations of reciprocity.

Let me think about this, do I really want this principle to change everything I believe?

Do I want to take out the trash before being asked?

I think I’ll keep this story to myself and maybe it will blow over .