Seamless, the food delivery service app under the online food ordering giant Grubhub ($GRUB), sent an e-mail to its customers heralding the new Burger King Crispy Chicken Tenders with a pretty savory deal.
But, as it turns out, only 15% of all Burger Kings quality for the promotion. Not so savory anymore.
Burger King and Seamless, mapped
Out of the 7,256 Burger King restaurants in America, 1,082 are available for order on Seamless. Or in other words, more than 85% of locations are not eligible for free chicken tenders.
On paper, that does not sound like a lot (and it isn't). However, keep in mind that Seamless is only available in select markets — read: big cities — across the country. To show what we mean, here's a look at all the Burger Kings in America, not including those in Hawaii and Alaska:
And here are all the Burger Kings listed on Seamless' application:
When filtering out all Burger Kings where Seamless does not offer delivery, it's clear to see the gaps in coverage in rural states and areas. After all, Seamless is in "450+ cities," which are mostly in parts of the country with the top metro areas per capita, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami.
Thankfully for those who love the King, Seamless is part of the Grubhub conglomerate, which includes Grubhub's own app and Eat24. Those two are available as we've covered before when profiling the largest online food delivery companies in America.
Debunking the "new" chicken tender claim
Turns out this isn't really a chicken tender debut for Burger King.
The company first debuted chicken tenders in 1985 to rival McDonald's Chicken McNuggets. In its first run of ads, it took direct shots at nuggets — yes, nuggets, so it can get around the McNuggets copyright — while also showing good ol' wholesome Americans doing American things in the mid-80's.
In terms of the tenders in this century, the Chicago Tribune reported that Burger King had chicken tenders in 2009. However, they were ironically enough, replaced by nuggets in 2013.
Outside of the United States, Burger King has chicken tender-like products, specifically in the United Kingdom where it has offered "Chicken Strips" in its restaurants.
So to be clear: Crispy Chicken Tenders are new, chicken tenders at Burger King in general have been there before. Will it stick for good? The Seamless e-mail says so, but given its past, we're going to wait until it's looking like the real thing (baby).
