Clara’s question makes a comeback.
Remember that 1984 Wendy’s commercial with the elderly lady yelling, “Where’s the beef?” as she looked at another fast-food chain’s hamburger? The coronavirus pandemic is causing meat shortages due to processing plant closures and Clara’s question may be coming back into our everyday conversations.
Clara Peller, a character actress, became famous for that commercial at the age of 81. Some of Wendy’s customers are likely repeating Clara’s line and wondering why they can’t buy a burger as they see signs noting only chicken choices are available. This was predicted as the coronavirus spreads across the country. Meat processing plants are dealing with sick workers and trying to keep operations running so as to limit shortages in the food supply chain. I’ve written several posts about the problem as it has increased. Those posts weren’t meant to fearmonger but to warn of what may be coming down the road. Now some areas are experiencing meat shortages.
Wendy’s uses fresh beef for its burgers and the chain is struggling to keep up with rising beef prices and shortages in the supply of beef.
According to the report, Wendy’s has “struggled to maintain enough supply this past week” and to keep up with the demand for its burgers. Wendy’s issued a statement saying that it is closely monitoring the situation.
“As you’ve likely read, there have been challenges among protein suppliers across North America,” Wendy’s spokesperson Heidi Schauer told the outlet: “We are working closely with our supplier partners and restaurant teams to minimize the impact to our customers and continue to monitor this closely.”
Some Wendy’s are only able to serve chicken while others are limiting burger sales to only the smaller ones.
