Oh I totally agree that Popeyes is far better Chicken than KFC and that is due to several reasons. Popeye's Chicken is always much hotter (temperature wise) than KFC that cooks their chicken and then parks it an a holding oven until they serve it. Additionally Popeye's Chicken's Mashed Potatoes are the real thing and not the instant potatoes (flakes and Hot Boiling Water) that KFC uses to make their Mashed Potatoes.
With respect to the times I do chosen to eat at KFC I think it's sort of like Krystal. Sometimes you get a craving for just that taste and although it's not that frequent when it comes there's only one way to satisfy it and that is eat the Chicken. Although it's, often, extremely greasy I do enjoy the Original recipe version of the KFC Chicken followed by the baked.
As far as fried Chicken goes, at least in the Shoals, I do believe of the fast food places Popeyes is the best Chicken but if you have the time to wait I still believe that Champy's is the best, freshest, and hottest (temperature wise) Chicken in the Shoals area. For me I only choose KFC if it just happens to be one of those days that I desire that original flavor taste and then when I do the Cox Creek (Florence) location is the last one I'll chose to patronize.
Lastly I do know there are a couple of other places to get fried chicken pieces and that being Bojangles and Jack's. While I have had Jack's and wasn't too impressed I haven't tried Bojangles as I've heard it's a bit spicy to the taste and I have to be careful with certain spicy foods due to my stomach. I will though say that I do miss Hardee's Fried Chicken because I thought they did a good job, when they served it, and I actually remember Krystal serving Fried Chicken back in late 1970's and early 1980's. That's a long time ago.