Enthusiasm ran so high for the newly-opened Popeyes Chicken last weekend, that Popeyes – and its neighbours at Arby’s – hired security to regulate unruly traffic.
Michelle Walker, general manager of the Arby’s on Mountain Road, told Huddle she and her employers hired security to make sure Popeyes customers didn’t start taking up berths in the Arby’s lot – a scenario that eventually did happen.
“We had security in our parking lot all weekend and we actually were turning away quite a few cars from parking in our spots and going over to Popeyes,” she said.
“We were just waiting for the shoe to drop and what was going to happen.”
Walker told Huddle she and her co-workers had a “front-row seat” to the heavy traffic that choked Mountain Road throughout the day.
She said the first significant spike came around lunchtime, followed by an even more dramatic rush around 6 p.m. That day, some customers waited up to three hours to be served at the Cajun-inspired chicken joint and a gridlocked line of at least 100 cars snarled movement on Mountain Road.
Walker guessed that, at its worst, the congestion on Mountain Road was a four-mile-long line of cars.
Some people, unaware of the impact Popeyes was having, assumed the sclerotic traffic on Mountain Road was the result of a traffic accident, Walker noted.
“Then they realized, ‘Oh, people are waiting for chicken,’ and realized the whole inside lane was free and they could keep traveling all the way up Mountain Road without any inconvenience,” she said.
“That’s why we’ve been planning for Popeyes to open ever since we heard about it. I was expecting traffic to be way down the road. It did get quite far down Mountain Road, but it wasn’t as crazy as I thought.”
The local response to Popeyes opening in the Hub City, while enthusiastic, was dwarfed by the frenzy that descended upon Bedford, Nova Scotia, when Popeyes opened there in March. That day saw $28,000 in sales, gridlocked traffic, and staff using free biscuits as leverage to divert customers from overwhelmed staff.
Popeyes, in a bid to give overworked staff some respite, cut hours in its early days of operation in Bedford.
Going into the weekend in Moncton, Walker said traffic remained steady at both Popeyes and Arby’s.
“[Popeyes] had their security guards who were really good at turning people away, like [preventing them from] turning into the drive-thru,” she said. “We usually have busy weekends, but we did feel a bit of it on Saturday and Sunday.”
Friday turned out to be one of the busiest days of the year for the Mountain Road Arby’s, Walker noted.
“A lot of people didn’t want to wait and we were right here, so they would just come to us,” she said.
Since Arby’s is up the road, the heavy traffic bound for Popeye’s didn’t impede traffic to Arby’s.
“They were just straight down Mountain Road, but it’s pretty convenient because as soon as they’re past the Popeyes’ drive through they could just go back onto either side of the road, so it didn’t necessarily block traffic from coming to us,” she said.
Traffic was heavy for the rest of the day and saw a spike in activity that backed up Mountain Road around 6 p.m.
Staff at Arby’s also took the opportunity to have a little fun, posting some chicken jokes to its reader board to find a laugh in the chaos, with jabs at the rival fast food chain’s specialty.
Popeyes confirmed its plans to open a Moncton location in July, not long after it announced plans to take over the former home of the 3Mile Steak and Rib House in Saint John.
Sam Macdonald is a Moncton-based reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting partner. Send him your feedback and story ideas: macdonalds@huddle.today
