KFC's Ties Is Hurting Their Expansion

 I'll admit my bias up front: on at least three different occasions, I've been to a KFC and was told, "We're currently out of chicken." So to see this put a slight smile on my face:

In Algeria, the first KFC store to open in the country closed two days after its opening amid a nationwide backlash against the chain food store, which is included in the pro-Palestine boycotting list.

On Sunday, 16 April, a branch of KFC opened in the Algiers suburb of Dely Ibrahim, marking the first location of the US chain in the North African country.

However, many Algerians quickly made it clear that the store was not welcome in their country, mainly due to its alleged support for Israel.

It's spreading...just ask Malaysia:

American fast-food chain, KFC, has shut more than 100 units, as US businesses around the world face battering over Palestine, Anadolu Agency reports.

The KFC had to reduce its operations across Malaysia, mostly in north-eastern Kelantan state, following calls for a boycott of the businesses, amid protests over US support to Tel Aviv, in the aftermath of Israeli attacks on the Palestinian besieged enclave of Gaza since 7 October last year.

“QSR Brands, which owns and operates the KFC fast-food franchise in Malaysia, is suspending 108 outlets nationwide,” daily The Straits Times reported on Monday, citing a local Chinese-language newspaper.

Footfall of customers at KFC brand restaurants has dried up in recent weeks and the American food chain has been forced to wind up its operations in the Muslim-majority South-east Asian nation where it runs over 600 units.

“KFC is not on the BDS list of targeted companies. But many Malaysians see any American fast-food operator to be related to Israel, including KFC,” Professor Mohd Nazari Ismail, Chairman of the pro-Palestinian group Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Malaysia, told the Singapore-based newspaper.

BDS is a global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel over its illegal Occupation of Palestinian lands.

The report claimed that KFC was seeing the boycott of its businesses “as an opportunity to cease” some of its operations “that have weighed on its balance sheet”.