Good Citizen – KFC
This is a rework of a much earlier blog from India that not many people saw. It was one of my favorites. Today is the first of two posts in response to questions I have had about what is available in India to help the many less fortunate people. Soon, there will be a post about a unique program for the sight impaired. 
It started maybe six weeks into our time in India…. we started missing the variety of the food we enjoyed in America. We began a hunt. Some of the students found Dominoes, while others visited McDonald’s for paneer cheese sandwiches, which weren’t too satisfying, but the French Fries were great! And someone saw a KFC in Alpha One Mall! The mall makes you think you are in America except for its size. There are 4 stories plus a basement where we discovered Hyper City. It became our large box store of choice in India. It was well stock with our essentials, such as all the peanut butter we could ever want and all the toilet paper we could ever need! We decided to try KFC several weeks later. We were greeted warmly by the doorman! Yes, a doorman at KFC! (He is seen in the photo.) As we approached the counter, we saw the sign .
All the order takers were hearing and speech impaired. It was startling in the uniqueness of the situation, but the process ran quite smoothly. The customer points on a card to the menu item of her choice while the cashier rings up the order, hands you a receipt and gives you a radiant smile with his hand over his heart. We had never had an experience quite like this before. It was very moving. We returned several more times and were greeted each time as if we were remembered. Well, come to think of it, I guess the American auntie and uncle were hard to forget. I am thinking, if you are still reading, that you are asking, “Why is she telling us about eating at KFC?” Good question. Truthfully, I have never been much of a fan in America except for the biscuits, and they are not served in India. But now I am a cheerleader for the company. And it is because of the special order takers. Well, you might be thinking that this is one of many restaurants and maybe this is not the policy in all the KFC’s. Could be true, but for several weeks, I told everybody who would listen about the Alpha One Mall KFC! I talked to a graduate student at Cept and she told me that in Broda, the city where she is from, there is an identical workforce in its KFC. She said that it was stated as the Indian business plan policy to give jobs, meaningful work, to these hearing and speech impaired Indians. Can this be true…..a capitalist company with a conscience and a desire to help “the least among us?” I immediately emailed my financial adviser to ask if KFC is otherwise a strong company and compatible with my needs, then I would like to support their work in India. As you know, India’s main religion is Hinduism and eating no meat is pretty much the norm for the majority of Hindus. From the internet, I learned there were many protests in 2011 to prevent KFC restaurants from opening in Ahmadabad, but the demonstrations were not successful. Granted this hiring policy may have been in response to the protests and an attempt to be responsive to the them. Whatever the reason, I think it is commendable. What is the point of this post? I would like to encourage support of KFC and their work to be a responsible representative of capitalism. My hope is this will become the policy in the US, too. These stories are not often told in the media so I am doing it. The parent company is YUM and is traded on the NY Stock Exchange, if you feel lead to buy their stock. Also, give the cook in our homes a break and stop by to get some chicken. Oh yes, eat a biscuit with drippy honey, and wave to me in the corner! 
KFC doing its part to help our Indian neighbors! I hope this post warms your heart as much as it does mine. . . . . . . image from public domain
It started maybe six weeks into our time in India…. we started missing the variety of the food we enjoyed in America. We began a hunt. Some of the students found Dominoes, while others visited McDonald’s for paneer cheese sandwiches, which weren’t too satisfying, but the French Fries were great! And someone saw a KFC in Alpha One Mall! The mall makes you think you are in America except for its size. There are 4 stories plus a basement where we discovered Hyper City. It became our large box store of choice in India. It was well stock with our essentials, such as all the peanut butter we could ever want and all the toilet paper we could ever need! We decided to try KFC several weeks later. We were greeted warmly by the doorman! Yes, a doorman at KFC! (He is seen in the photo.) As we approached the counter, we saw the sign .
All the order takers were hearing and speech impaired. It was startling in the uniqueness of the situation, but the process ran quite smoothly. The customer points on a card to the menu item of her choice while the cashier rings up the order, hands you a receipt and gives you a radiant smile with his hand over his heart. We had never had an experience quite like this before. It was very moving. We returned several more times and were greeted each time as if we were remembered. Well, come to think of it, I guess the American auntie and uncle were hard to forget. I am thinking, if you are still reading, that you are asking, “Why is she telling us about eating at KFC?” Good question. Truthfully, I have never been much of a fan in America except for the biscuits, and they are not served in India. But now I am a cheerleader for the company. And it is because of the special order takers. Well, you might be thinking that this is one of many restaurants and maybe this is not the policy in all the KFC’s. Could be true, but for several weeks, I told everybody who would listen about the Alpha One Mall KFC! I talked to a graduate student at Cept and she told me that in Broda, the city where she is from, there is an identical workforce in its KFC. She said that it was stated as the Indian business plan policy to give jobs, meaningful work, to these hearing and speech impaired Indians. Can this be true…..a capitalist company with a conscience and a desire to help “the least among us?” I immediately emailed my financial adviser to ask if KFC is otherwise a strong company and compatible with my needs, then I would like to support their work in India. As you know, India’s main religion is Hinduism and eating no meat is pretty much the norm for the majority of Hindus. From the internet, I learned there were many protests in 2011 to prevent KFC restaurants from opening in Ahmadabad, but the demonstrations were not successful. Granted this hiring policy may have been in response to the protests and an attempt to be responsive to the them. Whatever the reason, I think it is commendable. What is the point of this post? I would like to encourage support of KFC and their work to be a responsible representative of capitalism. My hope is this will become the policy in the US, too. These stories are not often told in the media so I am doing it. The parent company is YUM and is traded on the NY Stock Exchange, if you feel lead to buy their stock. Also, give the cook in our homes a break and stop by to get some chicken. Oh yes, eat a biscuit with drippy honey, and wave to me in the corner! 
KFC doing its part to help our Indian neighbors! I hope this post warms your heart as much as it does mine. . . . . . . image from public domain
TalesAlongTheWay 
Thinking outside the box to do business is wonderful. When people here complain that companies are greedy and hoard money for themselves, they only see one side of the equation. I’ve never been a KFC fan either, but at least they are giving people lives. It’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing this.
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My thoughts exactly. . .
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😀
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all companies were committed to provide meaningful work for as many people as possible , as well as making a profit?
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I think this is not uncommon to see different way to run the same restaurant chain differently in different countries or regions of the world. I have visited McDonald in Japan and KFC in Thailand they both are different. Even menu items are not quite the same here. How employees there treat customers are also based on the local cultures.
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We also went to McDonald’s for a paneer burger….Yikes..not for me, but the store looked just the same inside as at home.
Starbucks in Dublin served in ceramic cups !
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I need to tell you how much I love the fact that you share these bits of life that are not often in the media. Amazing. x
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Oh that is great that you noticed as that is exactly the kind of blog I wanted to have . I didn’t want the traditional “travel log.” Big smiles. .
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how wonderful– a special KFC indeed!!! nice post. :0 and cool to have a doorman too. 🙂
~yvette
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As much trash as there is outside the malls, they are impeccably clean inside with sweepers everywhere and yes the doorman was a treat…..Indians just look for jobs …assistants to the assistants…for the 1.4 billion souls. . .
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Really neat Anne. It’s too bad they don’t follow the same policy in Kentucky, where the Colonel originated the famous recipe. Here I’ve seen workers pull the chicken out of the garbage to fill an order when they tried to shut down a few minutes early, and a customer came up to the drive in window. Pretty disgusting. And too many times they serve raw chicken. Hope it’s better in other states than it is in the state of it’s birth.
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What a story…yikes…. I hate raw chicken and always order wings x-tra crispy to avoid that. In India, at the KFC they sold hot wings and they were way over cooked, very crispy and not a hint of pink! Just the way I like them. I think they had little experience with cooking meat so they just did them well done. But that is how southerners like everything well done, right?
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Interesting!
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So glad you enjoyed it ! Big smiles for the week !
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Pingback: Deaf KFC in India! Check it out! | Raising Hands
I’m fascinated by this post. Did you have any other experiences with deaf people during your travels in India?
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No, I didn’t see this anywhere else but heard that the KFC stores in Baroda and Chennai hired hearing and speech impaired men. Are you familiar with this practice in any other places?
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Good to know. No, I’m not familiar with this practice – or anything like it. What I saw in India was generally much more negative – though the children’s home I worked at was very kind and the one deaf school I got to visit were very kind, and I did meet one deaf man who owned his own clothing shop (along with his deaf brother.)
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Pingback: KFC New Delhi | TalesAlongTheWay
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
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2 years ago I ate at this KFC ( I was curious what was on the menu of a vegitarian KFC). Any ways for 2 years I didn’t know why I had to order with finger pointing and I wondered why no one spoke to each other in the restaurant. I am very happy to find out why today.
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Oh David, what a wonderful comment. How happy it makes me
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Sent too soon! Anyway I am so glad you enjoyed the post and took the time to tell me! Big smiles!
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