Popeyes launches new $5 deal as fast food competition heats up
Popeyes
(NEW YORK) — As fast food chains continue to drop prices on popular menu items in hopes of enticing hungry customers, Popeyes is entering the arena with a new $5 deal.
The popular fried chicken chain announced new value offers on Monday, which includes an order of three pieces of its signature bone-in chicken for just $5.
The fast food franchise, which first started in New Orleans in 1972, timed the news in tandem with National Chicken Month.
“We first saw the ‘Value Wars’ taking off early in the summer, as consumers were looking for ways to indulge in their favorite foods, without the high price tag,” the company wrote in a blog post Monday. “This made our team think, how can we continue to serve our food, without compromising on the quality we are known for, but at a price our customers will be happy with?”
“This new promotion celebrates what Popeyes does best — Fried Chicken,” the company continued. “Each piece is expertly marinated in Popeyes signature blend of savory Louisiana herbs and seasonings, then battered in a crunchy southern coating and fried to golden brown perfection.”
According to Popeyes, the $5 deal is available at participating locations nationwide in restaurant, through the Popeyes app, or online.
“As consumers look for more ways to enjoy their favorite meals without breaking the bank, Popeyes is excited to join this conversation centered around guest satisfaction,” the company wrote.
The news comes on the heels of McDonald’s extending its $5 value meal and similar offers from competitors like Wendy’s, Burger King and even Chili’s.
(NEW YORK) — Shares in Donald Trump’s social media company spiked after the president-elect again vowed not to sell his stake in the parent company of Truth Social and called for an investigation into “market manipulators or short sellers.”
Trump Media’s stock price increased by nearly 16 percent to $32 per share on Friday, as investors reacted to the news.
In interviews with ABC News before the election, some shareholders expressed optimism about the company’s future if Trump won the election, in large part due to his potential ability to investigate and stop so-called “naked short sellers,” who they blamed for the company’s lackluster stock price.
Earlier this year, Trump Media’s CEO Devin Nunes called for Nasdaq to investigate whether the company’s stock price was manipulated by short sellers betting against the company without owning or borrowing shares.
“I’m very happy he’s the president and think he’ll do something about the short selling when he gets into office,” Todd Schlanger, a shareholder from West Palm Beach, told ABC News.
“The system seems kind of rigged,” Todd Schlanger, a shareholder from West Palm Beach, told ABC News earlier this year. “Once he becomes president, I think he’s going to fire the head of the SEC, and I think that’s going to make a big change for the company and for all companies.”
Shares in the company — which some analysts saw as a bellwether for Trump’s electoral odds — have surged since late September when the stock traded as low as $12. As Trump’s odds of winning the election improved, the stock’s value tripled in October, trading at more than $50 per share.
But the company’s long-term success remains uncertain, with the company losing more than $19 million during the last quarter while bringing in only $1 million in revenue, according to a recent SEC filing.
According to Similarweb, a data tracking site, the site only attracts 3.7 million unique monthly visitors, compared to rival X’s 461.4M monthly visitors.
As Trump heads into office and the company’s share price continues to surge, his 57 percent stake in the company is worth nearly $4 billion.
(SEATTLE) — Boeing machinists overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal this week, opting to extend a weekslong strike and send negotiators back to the bargaining table.
Sixty-four percent of workers voted against the new contract, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington, Oregon and California.
The outcome follows the resounding defeat of a previous proposal last month, which drew rebuke from more than 90% of union members.
The consecutive “no” votes set the stage for a standoff between Boeing and its workers that will strain the finances of both sides over the coming days and weeks, experts told ABC News. That financial pressure will push the dispute toward resolution but workers appear unlikely to budge without major concessions, they added.
“The union has sent a very clear message to Boeing that it will take significantly more to get a settlement,” Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who focuses on labor history, told ABC News.
The proposed contract would have delivered a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, upping the 25% cumulative raise provided in a previous offer overwhelmingly rejected by workers in a vote last month. Workers had initially sought a 40% cumulative pay increase.
The proposal also called for hiking Boeing’s contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declined to fulfill workers’ call for a reinstatement of the company’s defined pension. The contract would have included a $7,000 ratification bonus for each worker, as well as a performance bonus that Boeing had sought to jettison.
But union leaders said the concessions offered in the proposal were not enough to meet the demands of rank-and-file union members.
“This contract struggle began over ten years ago when the company overreached and created a wound that may never heal for many members,” said Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, in a statement after the vote. “I don’t have to tell you all how challenging it has been for our membership through the pandemic, the crashes, massive inflation, and the need to address the losses stemming from the 2014 contract.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Experts who spoke to ABC News forecasted a willingness on the part of Boeing to reenter talks and even revisit key parts of the offer.
Hours before workers cast ballots on Wednesday, Boeing released an earnings report showing the company had lost a staggering $6.1 billion over the most recent quarter, even though most of that period took place before the strike began.
The strike is expected to deepen that financial hole. A 50-day work stoppage would cost Boeing $5.5 billion, investment bank TD Cowen said in a report reviewed by ABC News at the outset of the dispute. So far, the strike has lasted 41 days.
“This rejection adds further uncertainty, costs, and recovery delays,” Bank of America Global Research said in a note to clients on Thursday. “We anticipate further concessions of wages will be required for a deal to pass.”
Financial stress will mount for workers as well, experts said.
Union members have received $250 per week from a strike fund, beginning in the third week of the work stoppage. That compensation marks a major pay cut for many of the employees.
“When strikes go longer than five or six weeks, the financial pressures really start to work on the union rank and file,” Robert Forrant, a professor of U.S. history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, told ABC News.
While union members remain widely opposed to the latest contract offer, it drew greater support than the first one. That incremental progress may prompt Boeing to continue the strategy of upping worker pay while standing firm in its refusal to reinstate a defined pension, Ryan Stygar, a labor lawyer at San Diego, California-based Centurion Trial Attorneys, told ABC News.
Workers lost a traditional pension plan in a contract ratified by the union in 2014. The union’s demand for reinstatement of the pension may appeal more to longtime employees who feel they’ve lost retirement benefits than younger ones who’ve joined the company since its shift to a 401(k), Stygar said.
“Boeing’s strategy will be to try to exploit that generational divide,” Stygar said, noting that increased pay and a larger ratification bonus may entice younger workers to support a future proposal even if it omits pension reinstatement.
“As the strike goes on and Boeing’s losses accumulate, I think we will see more aggressive negotiation,” Stygar added, saying the standoff could stretch on for another two to four weeks.
“But I don’t have a crystal ball,” Stygar said.
ABC News’ Jack Moore and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government is set to release new inflation data on Wednesday, offering a fresh look at price increases little more than a week after the issue appeared to help former President Donald Trump win re-election.
Inflation has cooled dramatically since a peak of 9% attained in 2022, now hovering near the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
The slowdown of price increases has coincided with robust economic growth, establishing the twin conditions necessary for the U.S. to achieve a “soft landing.”
Economists expect prices to have risen 2.6% over the year ending in October. That figure would mark a slight uptick from the annual rate of 2.4% recorded during the previous month.
Still, policymakers at the Fed forecast that inflation will inch downward toward normal levels next year, and reach the central bank’s target rate in 2026, according to projections released in September.
The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point last week. The move came two months after the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point, dialing back its fight against inflation since it began in 2021.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, lower interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment.
While the central bank’s concern about inflation has receded in recent months, a renewed focus on the labor market has risen to the fore. Employment has continued to grow but expansion has slowed in recent months. The unemployment rate has ticked up from 3.7% to 4.1% this year.
“We continue to be confident that with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the economy and labor market can be maintained with inflation moving sustainably down to 2%,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last week.
Even as inflation has slowed, that progress hasn’t reversed a leap in prices that dates back to the pandemic. Since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, consumer prices have skyrocketed more than 20%.
The price hikes appeared to fuel support for Trump in last week’s election. More than two-thirds of voters say the economy is in bad shape, according to the preliminary results of an ABC News exit poll.
However, Trump’s proposals of heightened tariffs and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants could rekindle rapid price increases, some experts previously told ABC News.
When asked last week about the Fed’s potential response to Trump’s policies, Powell said the central bank would make its decisions based on how any policy changes could impact the economy.
“In the near term, the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” Powell said on Thursday. “We don’t know what the timing and substance of any policy changes will be. We therefore don’t know what the effects on the economy will be.”
“We don’t guess, we don’t speculate and we don’t assume,” Powell added.
