Wings and Things: Texas-based Wingstop Debuts Thigh Offering

The buck has to stop somewhere. Thighstop, the new delivery-only brand from Wingstop had to think outside the box. Their main offerings are wings. With wholesale prices going through the roof the restaurant had to think quickly. They adapted to their current condition and upgraded to a new thigh offering. White meat is much more popular than dark meat. Time will tell if they have created the standard for the wing restaurant business model.

Thighstop menu via Doordash confirms the chain is selling bone-in and boneless chicken thighs served with ranch and blue cheese dips, fresh-cut seasoned fries, fried corn, and rolls. A three-piece thigh meal from the virtual venture runs $7.99, while a six-piece classic wing meal now costs nearly $13.

“The price of wings a year ago was as low as 98 cents,” per pound, Charlie Morrison, Chairman and CEO of Wingstop Restaurants Inc. Today, it’s at $3.22. So it’s a meaningful difference. Thighs, on the other hand, are “much less expensive,” he said, coming in at about half of what wings cost per pound today.”

“If we can buy all parts of the chicken, not just the breast meat for boneless wings and the wings themselves … we can start to control a little bit more of the supply chain,” Morrison explained. Convincing Americans to get excited about thighs might not be easy. “There’s not a big market for it,” Morrison said. Thighs just “don’t get the appreciation they deserve.”

Wingstop announced that it plans to open over 100 restaurants across Canada over 10 years from 2022.