Kfc To Test Online Ordering

Kentucky Fried Chicken, one of the oldest fast-food restaurant chains in the country, is going high-tech, and South County is in the thick of a test market that will determine whether online ordering is popular enough with consumers to roll out nationwide.

Los Altos-based Harman Management Corp., which operates 340 Kentucky Fried Chicken stores in California, Colorado, Utah and Washington, will be testing the concept in a 43-store region from Salinas to Hayward, including the KFC stores in Hollister, Morgan Hill and both the Wren Avenue and Monterey Road locations in Gilroy.

The rollout is planned in the next few weeks, once Harman has completed testing an online payment system, said Hector Gomez, area manager for Harman, the largest KFC franchise in the United States.

The concept was the brainchild of Gomez, who said he believes customers in the South Bay Area and Salinas Valley are early adopters of online retail.

"We are going to try it for six months," Gomez said. "If it hits certain usage goals, then we will roll it out into all 340 stores in the franchise." A customer will be able to go to www.orderkfc.com and select one of the 43 stores or enter a zip code to find the nearest location. From there a menu selection is provided, and customers fill out fields for items and quantities. Currently the minimum order is $20, but Gomez said that the minimum could change depending on how well customers embrace the technology.

Back at the individual KFC, staff will be notified via e-mail, pager and fax, said Delia Coria, manager of the Wren Avenue KFC in Gilroy.

"When a customer places an order, our pager will beep to let us know there is an order on the fax," she said.

Delivery options are available, but initially deliveries are limited to orders of $300 or more.

KFC is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, which includes Long John Silvers, A&W All American Food, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The publicly traded company that reported global sales of $9.5 billion in 2006.

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