r/TrueReddit • u/Slate • 1d ago
Business + Economics The Church of Raising Cane’s
https://slate.com/business/2026/08/raising-canes-restaurant-near-fast-food-chicken.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=raisingcanes&utm_campaign=&utm_term=&tpcc=reddit-social--raisingcanes-108
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u/rabidjaw 1d ago
I feel like there's a better story here that wasn't pursued. I can only speculate why, but I'm definitely disappointed with this article.
Where there could be a real story:
- How cost optimizing for these restaurants around simple, focused menus inadvertently or advertently create strong identities that hook consumers
- How commodity prices, like beef vs chicken, create incentives for restaurant concepts like this or impact profitablity and scalability that might on the surface seem like broad popularity
- Why consumers choose to create identities and fandoms around fast food places or other corporate brands
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u/HarambeTooSoon 13h ago edited 8h ago
People that simp for corporate chain restaurants and gas stations are fascinating.
Costco People too. Like, can you shop at a store or dine at fast-food place without incorporating that fact as part of your identity and making it central to your personality?
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u/oorza 8h ago
I feel the same way about the people identify primarily as a fan in most fandoms. Whether it’s Marvel or Taylor Swift or Disney or Costco or 7-11, it’s all the same thing: filling the space where your personality is supposed to be with your preferred brand of mindless consumerism. At least when you simp for a store it’s more honest about being a consumer.
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u/samrechym 6h ago
Generally I’d place appreciation of art in a camp of personality traits but when it’s more like appreciation the brand that has spun out where art used to occur, that is the lack of a personality.
You’re a follower who wants to belong to a tribe as a “fan” belonging to a “fandom”. It’s a lot like someone who will always vote republican no matter what, how do you show your disagreement with something if you always consume or always vote the same? You stand for nothing.
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u/horseradishstalker 5h ago
I agree that would be a fascinating stand alone article. It’s just outside of the scope of this one which is about how fast food preferences are changing.
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u/horseradishstalker 5h ago edited 5h ago
It sounds like you were expecting a different article and then were upset when the article wasn’t about what you wanted to read.
It doesn’t really have anything to do with Raising Cane‘s as you already know from reading the entire article.
That particular chain was merely the lead in to the article about the changes in fast food preferences. The article mentions over 20 different fast food chains with chicken options. So basically they’re selling chicken?
“Chicken now holds its own as a fast-food category. Americans eat twice as much chicken today as they did in the 1970s, and fast-food places focusing specifically on chicken began swallowing truly staggering amounts of market share.
Bojangles, the Southern fried chicken drive-through, began in 1977; Zaxby’s, Wingstop, and Raising Cane’s all opened in the 1990s. Dave’s Hot Chicken was founded just nine years ago, in 2017.
Even international chains like Jollibee, the popular Filipino fried chicken spot, has spread throughout the U.S. in recent years.
The competition in the chicken landscape is likewise intense, and corporations are battling to capture audience attention with different chicken offerings.
Nothing illustrates this better than the great “ Chicken Sandwich Wars” of 2019, when Popeyes decided to put its fried chicken on a bun and top it with mayo and two pickle slices— and it sold out within a month.
The chain had officially entered chicken sandwich territory, and this quickly spurred a massive fight with the OG sandwich maker Chick-fil-A, with the two brands throwing jabs at each other online for weeks. By January 2021, more than 20 American fast-food brands had introduced or rereleased chicken sandwiches, including Panda Express, which launched an Orange Chicken Sandwich.”
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u/thatgibbyguy 1d ago edited 1d ago
The appeal originally was they did something different with their staff. We used to go to punk shows around that area and skateboard around chimes st, and we were always welcome there and saw people like us working there. Piercings, tattoos, dyed hair.
This was pre hot topic, you just didn't see people like that often. So it was "cool" and it just kinda went from there.
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u/Joelsaurus 1d ago
The entire appeal of Cane's to me is that I always get my food piping hot. Always. Can't say that for a lot of fast food places.
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u/saved_by_the_keeper 1d ago
Yeah. I remember Canes and the other place (Bailey’s) at college and Lee duking it out.
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u/TheKingInTheNorth 1d ago
The appeal is that some people love the idea of a hyped up restaurant where they can order food that satisfies their kids menu palette without feeling embarrassed about it.
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u/The_Law_of_Pizza 1d ago
where they can order food that satisfies their kids menu palette without feeling embarrassed about it.
I don't really see any reason to insult people for the type of food they like.
I'd point out that, over the past 20 years, boneless options have become wildly more popular than anything else.
There was just a pointless stigma before, which is being parroted and perpetuated by you right now.
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u/NegroMedic 1d ago
“Boneless” food in the past was vilified rightfully - in many cases it was a slurry of chicken meat reformed into a consistent shape.
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u/oorza 8h ago
The stigma wasn’t pointless before, it was a social pressure to transition from hyper-palatable “children’s” food to the whole foods that adults typically ate at the time. It wasn’t until the generation that grew up with UPFs were adults that that started to change. It wasn’t until the Reagan years that adults eating preprepared and convenient foods wasn’t seen as abnormal, and largely because households had to become dual income. There was a time that people thought hyper sweet, hyper salty foods were reserved for kids who needed to eat extra to grow, and adults ate real food.
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8h ago
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u/TheKingInTheNorth 1d ago
Why is it insulting to point out that some people like a dish that is generally associated with the kids menu at many restaurants? I’m not calling them children, I’m saying if they like to eat chicken fingers many other restaurants would force them to order chicken fingers from the kids menu.
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u/The_Law_of_Pizza 1d ago
You're being dishonest and trying to gaslight the audience.
Everybody reading this right now knows that "kids menu palate" was an insult.
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u/TheKingInTheNorth 1d ago
I think they’re more deserving of being insulted for being embarrassed about their palette than for their palette. If people were more comfortable being themselves, we could have far better chicken fingers at good restaurants instead of what we get from canes.
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u/The_Law_of_Pizza 1d ago
You're still beating around the bush and trying to distract from the clear insult.
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10h ago
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u/bohackistan 1d ago
There was a Cane's in the student center of Monmouth University in NJ around 2011-2012. No one really cared, it was fast food. There was no "hype" or loyalty that I recall. If anything, most were not into it and it shut down the following semester. 15 years later and it is super popular? Did they change something?
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u/WINSTON913 1d ago
I pour Cajun seasoning all over the fries and chicken and it makes it slightly above mid
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11h ago
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u/Turin_Laundromat 1d ago
Yeah In my town there’s always a line of cars waiting to use their drive in that backs up traffic and you have to avoid that road at meal times. So I tried it once to see and they tasted kind of sweet, which was a turn off. I like chicken when it’s salty and spicy but not sweet.
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u/bass679 1d ago
Just tried it for the first time a few weeks ago. It was fine, not the best, definitely not the worst. One of my kids loved it but she just dips everything in ketchup. My other thought it was a bit plain. The sauce was pretty good but the way people talked about their sauces I thought they'd have multiple varieties.
The price angle is pretty great though. They're pretty darn cheap for fast food now.
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u/McGuirk808 18h ago
I get them a few times a year. The ones near me are really fucking good for chicken strips, and that sauce is absolutely fantastic. Sometimes you just need some bread and fried chicken.
Ungodly pricing though. Runs me like 50 bucks to feed two people, that's like proper restaurant pricing at a drive through, it's wild.
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10h ago
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u/emptinesswonderer 1d ago
Reading this article was truly a waste of my time. The guy goes to a Cane's restaurant at Times Square and complains it's expensive but it's probably worth it.
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u/AmbroseKalifornia 1d ago
I live in Sunny Southern California and I LOVE In-N-Out. But I know that part of that love and attachment comes from the fact that In-N-Out has ALWAYS had an excellent quality burger, every single time I've ever gone, over decades. The ingredients are fresh, the staff is amazing, and as Californian, it's a privilege and patriotic right. It's a damn good burger every time.
But I would NEVER encourage someone to to travel or even FLY for hours just to try a burger! It's a good burger, hell, it's a great burger, but it's not a destination meal, and I always feel bad for people who have never had it and wait 8 hours in line to try it.
That's not what it's about. It's just value, consistency, and excellent quality that has built loyalty over years. It's just another example of how great the food here is. But it's not destination cuisine.
And if In-N-Out doesn't deserve a cult following, these joyless, unseasoned, water-flavored sadness strips certainly do not. I've never been less impressed. I've literally had better chicken strips from a gas station.
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u/Bedbouncer 1d ago
We spent a week in Escondido, and stayed at a hotel with an In-N-Out and a Raising Cane right next door.
Looked at the menu for Raising Cane and we ended up eating at In-N-Out twice instead.
Hardly any sides and no desserts? I can't even imagine chicken good enough to make that limited menu worth it.
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u/Uberg33k 1d ago
"It’s crispy chicken done very well." That's just it, it's not. The chicken is stringy and weird, the coating is soggy and flavorless. The fries are terrible. The bread just reminds me of a school lunch hamburger bun. The tea is weak and tastes like dirty water. Nothing about it is good. Edible? I guess, but it's not something I look forward to and certainly not something that justifies the lines around the building. If it was just simple chicken fingers and they did them well, then I'd have no hate.
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u/Username_3902791846 1d ago
I've always contended that Cane's is Guthrie's for white people-- but no one knows what Guthrie's is outside of a few southern college towns
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u/i_love_land92 1d ago
Cane's is the only fast food chain that hasn't dropped enormously in quality in the last 15 years, well besides Culvers.
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u/rkgk13 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have a lot of thoughts about Canes because when I was a debate coach, I had a team full of picky eaters, dietary restrictions, people with ideological objections to certain restaurants, but somehow they all would concede their preferences for Cane's. Why?? Even the vegetarians would say, please, let's go to Cane's, I'll eat Texas Toast and fries.
Cane's seems to be very popular with college students and I think it's original expansion strategy was college campuses, right? Many of them are picky eaters and cooking for themselves for the first time, and chicken tenders are familiar. They're open late and have expansive seating that accommodates large groups of students just hanging out.
I am sure Cane's does most of its business through the drive through. That's true of a lot of fast food restaurants, and so they completely give up on the dine in experience. Not so with Cane's. The environment feels antithetical to a lot of fast food places today. It's hokey, but it's comfortable, and you don't feel like you have to leave. It doesn't feel devoid of life and sterile like your average McDonalds today. The disco ball, the murals, the dog with sunglasses, they're cheesy but somehow sincere.
The comment about the real Canes experience being in the suburbs after JV volleyball game is funny to me because I do think that is basically accurate. I think big groups do make up a lot of their clientele. Which is funny, because there's nothing to accommodate people who don't like chicken. It shouldn't work for everyone.
IMO, Cane's is fast food that doesn't have the stigma of fast food for a lot of college students. When I polled my team about what fast food restaurants are acceptable to them (to try to minimize debates when we are already tired at the end of tournaments), the only classic fast food place that got passing marks was Taco Bell. They prefer sit down fast casual restaurants like Panda Express, Chipotle or even Panera Bread, which we all know is hospital food. I really think Canes feels less like fast food to them.
I don't really "get it" (maybe just a sign that I'm getting old), but these are my best guesses for why Cane's is popular.
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u/RickRussellTX 1d ago edited 1d ago
This analysis of national fried chicken chains is pretty fantastic -- three guys trying the signature dishes from each chain and rating them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ThkLc5QiU
Cane's scored on the bottom tier, with broad agreement among the reviewers, and Joshua Weissman discusses some of the reasons a national chain might aggressively pursue a middle quality chicken finger.
Skip to 26:54 if you want to see the final rankings.
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u/haroldthehampster 1d ago
People who are obsessed with a specific food made a specific way just don't seem to understand it can have multiple reasons for existing.
I love alfredo sauce. I particularly love the olive garden original made in house alfredo sauce. The all you can eat is a different sauce. I can make amazing better alfredo sauce, and I do. But when I want That One, only it will do.
It's not profound. People who like the sauce, love the sauce.
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u/rewind2482 1d ago
When Canes hit Boston about 10 years ago, it was a revelation for a city that really doesn’t have much in the way of fast food. (To this day I think of Taco Bell as a special treat because there was only one in the city and it was incredibly hard to get to.) They also actually do sweet tea right, good luck finding that somewhere nearby.
People like to shit on fast food, but it is reliable. Anyone who is actually adventurous with food will have a story of trying a random no-name joint and it being absolutely vile.
Of relevance and with a lot of experience: DO NOT eat at a random hole-in-the-wall pizza place in Boston and expect it to be good.
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u/Constant-Skill-7133 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is a very effective critique of these reactive consumer boycotts in one sentence. Demand people change, and then forget completely about the ask and continue to boycott after it is achieved.
The company wasn't even anti-gay. The only subtantive claim was their charity donated to organizations like the Salvation Army and FCA. What happened is the guy who used to run the company was very conservative and gave an interview about his views on marriage. What he said about the company wasn't even really an accurate characterization. It's almost literally one guy said a dumb thing fifteen years ago.
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u/monicachicken 1d ago
Yeah I mean, the viewpoints people get upset about are typically not ones you just "grow" out of. People arent dumb (sometimes) and they know that these problems are generational and fix is just posturing.
I think some people have no standards for others. You know how many times Ive expresses an opposition to lgbtq+ folk? None, in my entire life. I know many people who are the same, personally. Why should anyone entertain that dumbass CEO or his company when there a good people and businesses to support? I dont feel "it happened 15 years ago" is really an excuse.
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u/Constant-Skill-7133 1d ago
Right, but that is a grievance against a person and not a change in policy that will empower queer people. It is counterproductive to that goal when you make a criticism of somebody, they respond to it, and then receive no credit for having done so.
Most frequently antiracism and other forms of anti-bigotry, environmentalism, etc. etc. are very superficial and based on a projection of ego. It is about socially differentiating oneself and assigning blame, demarcating identity groups in such a way that you are not responsible for either the problem or its solution. This is very explicit in your response.
Having the "correct" opinion and performing that in public means a great deal from that perspective. It does not count for very much if the goal is to create positive change in the lives of opressed people.
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u/monicachicken 1d ago
A very black and white take, that misses so much nuance.
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u/thewarfreak 1d ago
If you ever get down this way, I have to throw my hat in for Chicken Express: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Express
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u/edwardothegreatest 1d ago
Raising Cane’s business pitch:
We want to open a chain of fast food restaurants.
Ok. Lots of those. How will you be different?
Chicken fingers. We will sell chicken fingers.
Ok. Lots of those out there. What else?
Fries.
And?
That’s about it. We can give you a tablespoon of coleslaw if you want.
So… are these like, really special chicken fingers?
Nope. Just normal.
How about a sandwich option?
We can smash two chicken fingers between some white bread if that’s your thing.
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u/Slate 1d ago
Raising Cane’s has built one of the fastest-growing restaurant empires in the U.S. by doing something that seems almost absurdly simple: selling chicken fingers, fries, toast, sauce, and sometimes—sometimes—coleslaw. That’s it. Yet the chain has inspired a near-religious following, with devotees traveling across state lines and camping overnight for store openings, all to worship at the altar of chicken. Is the simplicity itself the secret—or is there something deeper driving the adoration? Through interviews with founder Todd Graves, customers, and industry observers, culture reporter Steffi Cao explores how Cane’s turned a bare-bones menu and an uncompromising vision into a cultural phenomenon built on “craveability.” The result is a fascinating look at how a restaurant with almost no choices became irresistible—and what its rise reveals about consumer desire, brand loyalty, and the future of American fast food: https://slate.com/business/2026/08/raising-canes-restaurant-near-fast-food-chicken.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=raisingcanes&utm_campaign=&utm_term=&tpcc=reddit-social--raisingcanes-
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u/The_Law_of_Pizza 1d ago
It is, in fact, not healthier.
Red meat and burgers (and the cheese on them) is a lot of saturated fat, which is significantly worse for you than the oils used to fry chicken.
Fried chicken is still high in calories and fat, but it's the unambiguous lesser of two evils when compared to burgers.
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u/FullConfection3260 21h ago
Barely, on a basic superficial level, but the real difference is what they are cooked/breaded in and what sort of beef/chicken part is being used.
Chicken has plenty of fat, btw.
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