First three customers won free chicken sandwiches for a year after arriving 14 hours early at brand new Popeyes in Northampton

An American fast food franchise has this morning (July 17) opened in Northampton, and has given away free chicken sandwiches for a year to eager customers to mark the occasion.

Louisiana chicken specialists Popeyes officially opened its new 68-seat restaurant and dual lane drive-thru at the former Buddies USA Diner in Sixfields at 11am.

As anticipation built, Popeyes UK announced “huge giveaways” – with the first three people in the queue on opening day, both in vehicles and pedestrians, winning free chicken sandwiches for a whole year.

The first three pedestrians to win the prize were 19-year-old Mitchell, 20-year-old Summer and 18-year-old Taylor, who arrived at around 9pm the night before (July 16).

Having camped outside and slept on the floor, each of them has won three free chicken sandwiches every week for the next year – amounting to 156 in total.

When asked why they made the decision to come along so early to secure their place in the queue, Mitchell said: “Who does not love chicken?”

The three agreed it was worth it, with the next customers having not joined the pedestrian queue until around five hours later at 2am on the morning of the opening.

With half an hour to go before opening, tens of people had joined both the dine-in and drive-thru queues waiting to be served.

The first 25 vehicles through the drive-thru and the first 25 pedestrians in the dine-in queue were also rewarded with a free chicken sandwich and merchandise.

That’s not all, as to celebrate the launch of the new breakfast menu, Popeyes UK says it will be offering free breakfast muffins to the first 25 cars in the queue at the new drive-thru the day after opening (Tuesday, July 18). Breakfast will begin at 8am.

To find out more about Popeyes UK, visit their Facebook page here.