Now we’re not sure about you, but here at Belly Ache Central, if you mention the Gaza Strip we tend to think conflict, human suffering, war, guns, bombs and all that sordid stuff. Well, this latest little snippet just goes to show how wrong even we can be. Next time you hear Gaza mentioned, you’ll surely be thinking of good ole Colonel Sanders after this! Come to think of it, he could be related to Yasser Arafat…they do look a little bit alike and they both have military experience right? One was a Colonel and the other a leader of a paramilitary group!
So here’s the deal…Palestinian smugglers have been using a network of tunnels dug under the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt to transport – not guns, but…wait for it… fried chicken! Since Israel tightened a blockade on the coastal territory six years ago that restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of the territory, Palestinians have used the tunnels to smuggle everything from weapons, to fuel, to livestock – and even cars – from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. But in a true demonstration of thinking out of the box in providing supply chain logistics par excellence, a Gaza-based delivery service company known as Al Yamama, or pigeon, has taken to delivering Kentucky Fried Chicken all over the Gaza Strip.
Al Yamama has more than 500 customers who are all willing to shell out nearly US$27 for a 12-piece chicken bucket – nearly three times higher than the price in Egypt! Basically how it works is Al Yamama takes orders from Gazans and phones the nearest KFC franchise in the Egypt – in the city of El Arish 65 kilometres away – from where motorcycle riders rush the deliveries to the border. After being carried through the tunnels by smugglers, motorcyclists waiting at the other end complete the deliveries. Taking up to four hours, the delivery process usually leaves buckets of chicken cold and chips soggy, but ahh those crazy Gazans still just can’t get enough of that KFC!
We just hope they’re also smuggling in some copies of Payload Asia, but of course we fear they could be using them to wrap the greasy chicken in them. Oh and one more thing before we go…being the marketing savvy gang that we are, we’re going to give a free idea to KFC. How about renaming the chicken strips to Gaza Strips!? And if you think that one is bad, one errant Belly Acher had suggested that ‘other’ fast food chain could use the name Arafat McNuggets…ewwwwh, that’s just so wrong.
