Slim Chickens Turns Samsung Smart TVs Into Direct Order Channels

Slim Chickens is embedding its full menu directly into the Samsung Smart TV home screen, letting guests in Northwest Arkansas order tenders, wings, and sandwiches using only a TV remote. No app download, no QR code, no third-party marketplace — and critically, no margin bleed to an aggregator.

The Slim Chickens pilot runs through two technology partners: klyq, a shoppable streaming marketplace built on NBTV's patented BuyBar™ commerce platform, and Gett, a direct-to-merchant ordering network that positions itself as infrastructure for what it calls the agentic commerce era. A guest sees a Slim Chickens home screen ad, watches short-form brand content, adds items to cart via the BuyBar™, and checks out through the remote. The order then flows into Slim Chickens' existing first-party ordering platform — the same stack powering its app and website — without touching a third-party marketplace or requiring any new kitchen equipment.

Why the Channel Matters

For operators navigating delivery economics, the structural argument here is straightforward. Third-party marketplace fees routinely compress restaurant margins, and brands have spent years trying to migrate customers toward owned ordering channels. What Gett's First Party Everywhere (FPE) model offers is a different surface area: high-traffic consumer environments — smart TVs, AI assistants, gaming platforms, social channels — that connect directly to a restaurant's own ordering stack. Gett reports more than 40,000 partner restaurants in its network. Reaching guests at the moment of craving, on a screen they're already watching, without surrendering the customer relationship or paying marketplace commission is the core value proposition.

Ben Turner, vice president of brand performance at Slim Chickens, framed it plainly: "We're not just renting space on the biggest screen in the house. We're turning TVs into Slim Chickens counters." The brand retains pricing control, meaning guests pay Slim Chickens' own menu prices rather than marketplace-inflated rates — a point increasingly relevant as consumers grow sensitive to delivery surcharges.

What Operators Should Watch

The klyq platform currently reaches more than 80 million U.S. Samsung Smart TVs, with expansion planned across Vizio, Apple TV, and Google TV. That addressable footprint makes this more than a regional novelty. For multi-unit operators evaluating their channel mix, the Slim Chickens pilot offers a live case study in what it looks like to treat connected TV as a transactional surface rather than a pure awareness play — a meaningful distinction for any brand already running programmatic or CTV campaigns.

The Northwest Arkansas launch is a deliberate homecoming: Slim Chickens opened its first location in Fayetteville in 2003 and now operates more than 300 units across 34 states and four international markets. Testing a novel ordering channel in its own backyard limits operational risk while generating real transaction data before any broader rollout.

For vendors, agencies, and technology partners working in restaurant ordering and delivery tech, the signal is clear: the next wave of first-party channel development is moving beyond apps and loyalty programs into ambient commerce environments — wherever a consumer happens to be when hunger strikes. Operators who establish direct integrations in those environments early will carry a structural advantage over those who remain dependent on aggregator traffic.

Takeaway for Operators

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.