Why TikTok Is Supporting A Popeyes 'Karen'

The life of a so-called "Karen" is one fraught with stress and difficulty. According to BBC News, the popular term is broadly used to describe middle-aged women who demonstrate aggression as a result of their own privileged position in life and often demand to speak to a manager when faced with a service decision they disagree with.

But the battles faced by Karens aren't always easy, as one TikTok video reveals. In the clip, uploaded by TikTokker @kae1y and viewed over 500,000 times, a woman who was frustrated with the service she received at a Popeyes restaurant felt unable to request to speak to the manager for fear of being labeled a Karen.

According to @kae1y, she submitted an online order for Popeyes and drove to the restaurant to collect it from the drive-thru as requested. However, despite waiting for 30 minutes, when she spoke to an uncooperative member of staff she was told to go inside the store — only to be faced with another queue, a rude worker, and the upsetting news that the kitchen couldn't actually fulfill the order due to a lack of chicken sandwiches. The majority of TikTok viewers have been sympathizing with @kae1y's predicament.

"Delicious but ... terrible customer service" is how one viewer summarizes Popeyes on @kae1y's TikTok video. Another believes that staff should have openly publicized running out of menu items, as well as being honest with limitations of the mobile app. Most commenters are lamenting Popeyes' customer service, including one who says they waited 40 minutes for an order that was served wrong, and another claiming to have been given a half-eaten meal.

One reply describes Popeyes' employees as having "no respect for anyone," while another replier says they were once given raw chicken and "yelled at" when they complained. Rather than criticizing @kae1y for debating speaking to a manager, many viewers are saying it's not worth the effort, recounting tales of unanswered phone calls and managers being equally impolite.

In a follow-up TikTok video, @kae1y explains that her determination resulted in a refund for the obsolete chicken sandwich (after vigorously complaining through the Popeyes app), and she was quickly served the remaining fries and drink from her combo meal — although her total time waiting to be served came to almost an hour.