NEW ORLEANS — A six-dollar box of chicken has returned to Popeyes, and the country’s reaction has, by most honest accounts, been disproportionate.

The chain’s “$6 Big Box” deal — a full meal of fried chicken, a side, a biscuit, and a drink for six dollars — is back for a limited run through September 27, and the effect on the public has been, in the words of one witness, “like watching a dog hear the word walk.”

Lines formed. People posted photos. People posted photos of the photos. At least one man in Florida was reported to have driven 40 minutes across two state lines, a fact his wife confirmed and then asked to be removed from the record, which, given the circumstances, was reasonable.

“I’m not saying it’s a spiritual experience. I’m saying that for six dollars you get a box of chicken and you don’t have to think about the price of chicken, and for a lot of people that’s the closest thing to a religious moment they’re going to have all year.”

The deal had been quietly retired at some point earlier in the year, and its disappearance was, by the account of several long-time customers, treated with a seriousness more usually reserved for the loss of a family pet. “I didn’t know it was gone until I was standing at the counter with the money in my hand,” said one patron, a man who declined to give his name for reasons he described, at length, as “professional.”

"For six dollars it's not a meal. It's a small victory. It's the chicken version of finding an extra twenty bucks in an old jacket."

The food itself is not new. It is, as every Popeyes employee will tell you, the same chicken that has been on the menu for years. The difference, experts in the field of fast-food economics pointed out, is not the chicken. The difference is the price, and the way a low price changes the entire emotional texture of a transaction. At six dollars, a box of chicken is a decision. At eleven dollars, it is a negotiation. The deal does not make the chicken better. It makes the customer feel like they have done something.

THE $6 BIG BOX: ODDS & OUTCOMES

  • Price: $6
  • What you get: fried chicken, a side, a biscuit, a drink
  • How long it lasts: through September 27, "limited time"
  • How many people will drive across a state line for it: at least one, probably more
  • How much better the chicken is than usual: zero, and that's the point

A food writer, asked to assess the cultural significance of the deal, paused for a long time before answering. “The reason it matters,” she said finally, “is that it’s one of the last places left where you can spend less than the price of a movie ticket and come home feeling like you won something.”

At press time, the deal was still available at participating locations nationwide, the lines were still forming, and at least one man in Florida had, per his wife, already driven the 40 miles back. “He’s doing it again,” she said. “I don’t understand it. I love him, but I don’t understand it.”