KFC chicken shortage: Bargain buckets sold on eBay as shops shut due to 'drought'

​KFC fans suffering in the wake of the chain's "chicken drought" have been thrown a lifeline by savvy eBay traders selling bargain buckets online.

The move came after hundreds of restaurants across the UK were forced to shut their doors due to a chicken shortage on Tuesday.

The chain said the "crisis" was expected to last until the end of the week prompting those able to get their hands on fried chicken to attempt to cash in on the treat.

Opening bids for buckets chicken and fries ranged from 1p to £100.

Despite there being many alternative chicken shops for people to get their fried food fix, some hungry punters were prepared to enter into a bidding war for a taste Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.

One post entitled “KFC CHICKEN” received 13 bids and was selling for £8.50.

The description read: “Rare! Sold out! Need to get your chick fix? Tired of being clucked around?”

Another listing said: “Rare KFC chicken, get hold of a rare KFC bucket complete with chicken while stocks last. Buy now before the chicken runs out.”

The bucket had a starting bid of £100 but had received zero bids.

When the Standard contacted the seller they claimed that the chicken was real.

READ OUR LIVE COVERAGE OF THE SHORTAGE HERE.

While most listings offered free postage and packaging some were collection only.

One seller offering a KFC 10 piece bargain bucket wrote: “If you've got a hankering for the 11 herbs and spices - but your KFC is currently boarded up like it exists in a post apocalyptic wasteland - bid today for this limited edition, extremely rare bucket of 'Kentucky Fried' goodness."

“Fries not included. Cannot guarantee chicken will be warm on collection,” it added.

Outlet closures up and down the country are expected to last all week, with more than 500 branches shutting after the company was hit with supply chain issues.

Closures have been reported across the capital, with many fast food fans venting their outrage after discovering their local store was affected by the massive outage.

KFC apologised for the shortage and said its teams across the UK are “working flat out” to get service back up and running.

KFC said on Wednesday afternoon that just under 70 per cent of its restaurants are now open after being forced to close amid the "crisis".

A statement said: "Nearly 70 per cent of our 900 restaurants (628) are now open for business and we anticipate the number of closures will reduce over the coming days. More deliveries will be made today as our teams continue to work flat out all hours to clear the backlog caused by the breakdown in the DHL distribution system.

"We still expect the disruption to some restaurants to continue over the remainder of the week which means some will not be open and others will operate with a reduced menu or shortened hours."

The Standard has contacted eBay for further comment.