After a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet in Wuhan did not handle his complaint over food safety adequately, a Beijing man decided to take matters into his own hands.
He bought 2,000 buckets of chicken from KFC, in an attempt to protect potential customers and warn others about the food that they were eating.
Mr Yang Lin, 30, was on a business trip to Wuhan, Hubei from Beijing, and visited a KFC outlet with his friend Mr Lei around 12 noon on Sept 4.
As he was paying and waiting for his order, he happened to look through a gap between the food cabinets, and saw a young man in the kitchen preparing burgers.
"He wasn't wearing a cap or face mask. When he turned, I saw him using his bare hands to pick up patties and vegetables," he was quoted as saying in Chinese by China Smack.
Mr Yang said he immediately pointed this out to the counter staff and refused to eat the food. A female supervisor in her 20s came over to speak to him.
He requested that employees wear gloves during food preparation, and had to repeat himself three times, reported China Smack.
The manager of the outlet eventually apologised to Mr Yang.
According to Mr Yang, the manager explained that the employee forgot to wear gloves because there were many customers at the time.
The manager also said that food safety was guaranteed as the chef washed his hands multiple times before touching the food.
After his complaint, he noticed that the employee put on a cap and gloves, but not a face mask.
Upset that his complaint was not addressed satisfactorily, the businessman requested for 20 "family meal" buckets as compensation.
When the outlet refused, he placed an order for the 2,000 buckets, which comprises chicken pieces and soda.
The staff thought he was joking until he placed a wad of hundred yuan bills on the counter.
According to the staff, one takeaway bucket costs about 74 yuan ($14.40), so 2,000 buckets will cost more than 140,000 yuan, reported China Smack.
Worried that they might not be able to handle his request, the restaurant's staff decided to put in orders for 20 buckets at a time, figuring that they'll just serve what they can.
As his order was served, Mr Yang began placing the buckets of fried chicken on the steps of the restaurant. He also placed signs warning about the hygiene violations, such as "Kentucky has seriously breached regulations" and "Serious problems with food safety here".
Mr Yang said he has eaten at many KFC restaurants in other countries and found that hygiene standards abroad were better. He questioned why disposable gloves weren't used when they were provided by KFC.
He also said that he spent this much money to assert his rights in hopes that residents will be warned.
"I wanted to buy all their food so they couldn't poison anyone else and I wanted to warn people what sort of food they were eating.
"I'm lucky to have made money in business so I can afford this protest. At first, KFC wanted my money, but soon they were begging me to take it back," Mr Yang was reported by The Huffington Post to have said.
At about 5pm, Mr Yang was still on the scene staging a protest. Mr Lei told reporters that Mr Yang's parents have their own business, so 140,000 yuan for the buckets is nothing to him. He added that his friend would not have blown up the matter if the restaurant had apologised from the start, and felt that the store had an attitude that "if you don't buy from us, others will".
Around 7pm, the restaurant refused to sell any more food to Mr Yang after 22 buckets.
Mr Yang only agreed to end the bucket blockade after KFC managers publicly apologised for their behaviour and agreed to improve staff hygiene.
KFC's parent company, YUM! Restaurants (China) Investment Company Limited, responded that night, saying they will discipline the workers and that they appreciate Yang's supervision, reported China Daily.
The statement also said that according to the relevant policy, the company has established a stricter food preparation process, which requires employees to wear gloves during food preparation. Individual employees who fail to comply will be reprimanded by the company, reported Netease.
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