We Finally Know Why Buffalo Wild Wings Is So Cheap

While boneless chicken wings might taste like their traditional counterparts, they don't come from the same part of the bird. The fact is that boneless wings have very little to do with wings. They are chicken breasts cut into wing-sized pieces. Russ Whitman, a Poultry Analyst at Urner Barry, explained how boneless wings are made, saying, "what they do is they take a piece of breast meat, and they essentially strip it down, cut it into five three-inch long pieces ... and throw it in a fryer" (via The Counter).

Buffalo Wild Wings began selling boneless wings back in 2003 to deal with the increasing prices of bone-in wings caused by both high demand and production costs (via Restaurant Business Online). There's another reason why traditional wings tend to be more expensive than boneless wings. While you only get four wing pieces per bird — two flats and two drumettes — each chicken breast can be cut into multiple "wings" (via NRN).

In his article for FoodBeast, Constantine Spyrou refers to boneless wings as "glorified chicken nuggets." However, he also points out that chains such as BW3 don't want to call them that for a very particular reason. "When you think of wings, you think of beer, sports, bars, watching a game, and having a good time with friends," he writes. "When you think about chicken nuggets, however, the image is more along the lines of fast food."

Wings and beer go together like peanut butter and jelly, or so some say. They also go well with sports, something BW3 uses heavily as a part of its marketing strategy. As such, it's not surprising that aside from food, the chain is also focused on selling beer. In fact, BW3 took the title of the largest pourer of draft beer in the U.S. in 2020 (via FSR Magazine). The chain's Director of Beverage Strategy and Innovation, Jason Murphy, explains, "At Buffalo Wild Wings, our goal is to create a balanced lineup of beers from local, regional, and national breweries, representing craft, import, and domestic and a broad range of styles that appeals to all beer fans." (via Inspire Stories).

According to Motley Fool, alcoholic beverage sales make up around 20% of BW3's revenue — in other words, a very respectable sum. And with over 30 beers on tap, including Budweiser, Guinness, and Heineken, the franchise definitely takes its brews seriously. There are also more unusual house beers such as the Wild Herd Kölsch by Goose Island, which was added to the menu in 2020.

To address labor shortages, and no doubt save on labor costs, Buffalo Wild Wings is getting ready to introduce a new addition to its team in 2022 — Flippy Wings, the robotic wing fryer. The result of a partnership between the chain's parent company Inspire Brands and Miso Robotics, Flippy Wings — or Wingy for short — will streamline operations and maximize efficiency. According to the robot's creators, Wingy can increase the speed of food production by between 10% and 20% (via 1851 Franchise).

According to a press release, Flippy Wings comes with AutoBins where kitchen staff drop products to be cooked. The AI system then picks up the food, cooks it, and places it in a holding area. The CEO of Miso Robotics, Mike Bell, explained the benefits of the venture, saying, "Flippy Wings fries fresh, frozen or hand-breaded products like a pro, avoiding cross contamination and increasing throughput while reducing costs. It is fast, safer to operate than traditional fryers and the whole system can be set up in just a few hours over existing equipment."

Buffalo Wild Wings isn't the only restaurant eager to utilize robotics in its food processing system. According to the 2021 Global State of Hospitality Report, 45% of restaurant operators have said that they plan to use automation technology during the next two to three years.

In 2017, Buffalo Wild Wings embraced a new business model with the opening of the first B-Dubs Express in Edina, Minnesota. Unlike the traditional Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants, B-Dubs Express outlets don't require customers to wait to be seated and deal with servers. Focused on take-out, B-Dubs Express locations also feature fewer television screens than traditional Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants and seating for only around 35 to 50 patrons (via Media Group Online).

The main goal of the new strategy has been to attract millennials and reduce the chain's need for staff by adopting a scaled-down, grab-and-go approach. Customers who visit B-Dubs Express can order right at the counter and either take their food home or sit down — a fast food casual dining approach that seems to be appealing to millennial customers. Former Buffalo Wild Wings CEO, Sally Smith, noted that millennial consumers were more likely than older consumers to eat at home, have food delivered from restaurants, and have quick meals at fast-casual or quick-serve restaurants.

For a hot minute, wings from Buffalo Wild Wings were sold in sizes small, medium, or large. Slinging them by volume, it turns out, was actually more expensive for BW3 in the long run. In 2020, Restaurant Business reported that the chain switched to ordering by quantity on the grounds that the former method drove up food costs. 

As former CEO Sally Smith explained to Restaurant Business, employees would go through a lot of wings to fit the specific weight requirements for each portion. Wings don't come in consistent shapes or sizes, nor can they be sliced up because of the bones, so workers would have to include more, not less, to meet the target. Keeping in mind that BW3 procures its meat by the pound, the excess amounts added up fast. And from the customer's perspective, it blurred the lines of exactly how much food they could expect to get in return (per Restaurant Business).

Today, customers can order wings in batches of six, 10, 15, 20, and 30 (per Buffalo Wild Wings). The count-based approach is easier for both parties involved, because customers will know what they're paying for upfront and the chain can budget accordingly since there's no guesswork in estimating how much product they'll have to purchase. This helps Buffalo Wild Wings' top specialty — the wings — remain as affordable as they are. We imagine tailgate parties got easier to plan with the decision.

With an annual revenue of $2 billion dollars, Buffalo Wild Wings rolls in enough dough to support the 44,000 workers who bring their A-Game to the sports bar (via Zippia). At least theoretically. Like many other restaurant chains out there that pay minimum wage, Buffalo Wild Wings employees don't make a whole lot of money. At the time of publication, Indeed shows cashiers make around $12 an hour, while line cooks pocket $15. These wages more or less line up with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' current numbers on the subject, but still, it's not especially lucrative for a physically-demanding job. 

Management, while perhaps a step up in terms of salary, doesn't seem to have it much better. Some employees have reported not receiving the benefits promised to them such as health insurance, dental, or even paid time off. One individual on Indeed described their experience as "extremely stressful," adding that the role "provides little to no work/life balance having to work at least 50 hours a week with very little PTO." 

Essentially, the chain maintains an inexpensive labor force which subsidizes the low menu prices it's been allowed to get away with. Truth be told, the particulars appear to vary depending on the state, and even the location. Yet it doesn't change the fact that service workers at large are generally underpaid for the amount of work they do, and Buffalo Wild Wings is no exception to the rule. 

A study from Nation's Restaurant News discovered that bars offering a happy hour menu tended to generate a 26% uptick in profits. In our opinion, a study isn't needed to prove discounts are a recipe for success. Like most sports bars, Buffalo Wild Wings offers the kind of finger foods and brews made for enjoying after punching the clock on a long work day, at prices that won't break the bank. 

The deals, according to its website, can be scored between Monday and Friday from 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and starts at $3, covering draft beers, cocktails, mozzarella sticks, tater tots, pretzel knots, and more. The specials were recently introduced in the summer of 2022 to kick off the season and debut the Bird Dawg, a sauce-coated chicken tender concoction stuffed inside a bun (via People). 

Just like BW3 relies on beer and wings to make a profit as we've previously established, so does the happy hour menu deliver in a similar way. Serving a wide range of snacks and drinks, at the level of fast food prices, draws big business from the frugal-minded crowd who would not spend money there otherwise. Plus, it doesn't hurt that much of the food is frozen instead of fresh, thereby making it less expensive to prepare in large batches for the crowds who flock in.