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Popeyes Chicken Proposed for White Horse Pike in Lindenwold.

Popeyes Chicken Proposed for White Horse Pike in Lindenwold.
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A Popeyes fast food chicken restaurant is being proposed for the White Horse Pike in Lindenwold New Jersey, at the corner of Oak St.

Currently the property is cleared and undeveloped, after a building which most recently housed a dry cleaner (and originally a bank) was demolished.

To better describe the location of the proposed Popeyes restaurant, directly across Oak Street (on the same side of the “Pike”) is Pike liquors. A little further down there is a McDonald’s as well as a Wawa Convenience Store with gas.

This building on the White Horse Pike in Lindenwold was demolished a few years ago ahead of plans to develop a new Popeyes restaurant.

The Popeyes project is to be reviewed by the Lindenwold Joint Land Use Board on January 26th 2023 at 6:00 PM. The developer is looking for Preliminary and Final Site Plan Approval.

The notice for the meeting lists a few variances requested, mostly specific to signage requirements of the new restaurant building and property.

The property actually is somewhat large for the Popeyes restaurant, and even wraps around behind the barbershop and auto repair shop, connecting with Holly St.

At the time of this article’s writing, we do not have the proposed site plan so we are not clear if the intent of the developers is to extend the restaurant’s driveway access to Holly St.

A new Popeyes Chicken location is proposed for the Lindenwold on the White Horse Pike. The Joint Land Use Board will review in January.

This area of the White Horse Pike is highly traveled, and it’s surprising that at this time the nearby McDonald’s and Wawa are the only larger national fast food options.

There is other local competition in the area for customer’s chicken dollars.

Locally owned independent options include Aunt Berta’s Kitchen Too, Crown Chicken and Grill, and 92 Chicken in Clementon.

This property on the White Horse Pike in Lindenwold is proposed for the development of a new Popeyes Fast Food location. Pike Liquors is to the left.

Popeyes Chicken Created a New Wave of Chicken Lovers!

Popeyes is on a small growth spurt in the 42Freeway area, with some of the popularity in the chicken chain created by Popeyes own chicken sandwich introduction in 2019.

This is the third Popeyes restaurant proposed for the 42 freeway.com area in recent years, with a location recently approved in Runnemede NJ and another proposed for Cross Keys Rd. in Winslow.  In Burlington County locations were also approved in Burlington Township and Mansfield in 2022.

Other existing Popeyes locations include Washington Township, Blackwood-Clementon Rd, Berlin Route 73 and a location also on the White Horse Pike but 5 miles away in Lawnside.

A Popeyes proposed for Lindenwold will need a few variances mostly around signage. The image above is from a recent Runnemede NJ proposal.

It’s clear that fast food chicken is not a new idea.

Heck, I go all the way back to when Kentucky Fried Chicken was sold at Gino’s Hamburger Restaurants in the 70s!

Of course today we several chain chicken restaurant options including KFC, Church’s Chicken, Crown Chicken and even Royal Farms convenience stores have made fried chicken their signature food item! But none of those players really made a name in chicken sandwiches.

A few burger focused fast food restaurants have offered chicken sandwiches such as Burger King, and Wendy’s. For decades Wendy’s offered probably one of the best known chicken sandwiches.

But there was room for a dominant player in the category, and stepping into that space was the well loved Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich restaurants. We are all familiar with the long lines at the Chick-fil-A drive-thru, just to get a fresh sandwich or Nuggets!

Chick-fil-A dominated the chicken sandwich arena for decades, and is still the leader.

But things changed a bit in 2019 with the introduction of the then new Popeyes chicken sandwich.

Popeye's Chicken Sandwich 42Freeway
2019 Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich taste review by 42Freeway (YouTube)

Whether it was a great marketing plan, an amazingly fresh and delicious sandwich, or a combination of both… Popeyes took the fast food world by storm that year with the introduction of their new chicken sandwich.

Early buzz on the sandwich grabbed the attention of social media influencers who jumped on the bandwagon to try the new sandwich and report on it, effectively providing significant free advertising to the Popeyes chain and new food product.

And many said the words “better than Chick-fil-A”… further increasing interest in the Popeyes sandwich version.

Soon shortages were reported at Popeyes restaurants across the country!

In May 2020… nine months after the the launch of the Popeye’s new chicken sandwich… parent company RBI announced that Popeye’s store sales were up 20% because of that one product launch compared to a normal year, and 40% compared to the 2019 Covid impacted year.

Today of course the long lines of customers waiting to get a Popeyes chicken sandwich or gone but they continue to be very popular.

From the rear of the White Horse Pike property in Lindenwold, this is proposed to become home to a new Popeyes restaurant.

And all of this obviously caught the attention of the fast food industry as a whole who over the most recent years have been upgrading and introducing new varieties of chicken sandwiches to get a larger piece of the growing fast food chicken market.

And this has also spawned the introduction of new players into our area, such as Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, who are planning locations for Cherry Hill, Marlton, and Deptford… With others in the works for the area.

So while America is still most associated with hamburgers cooking on a grill… fried chicken and sandwiches are making their move.

And Popeyes is looking to grow along with that increased interest.

Links and Locations

Popeyes Lindenwold (proposed)
701 S White Horse Pike
Lindenwold NJ

Planning Board Meeting
January 26, 2023, at 6:00 PM
Borough of Lindenwold Municipal Building
Main Meeting Room
15 N. White Horse Pike
Lindenwold, NJ 08021

Popeyes Corporate Site