WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. – A viral video shows the power of social media, and it is having a lasting impact on one business in Lehigh County.
3PC Chicken in Whitehall Township turned to social media to ask for help and suggestions. It says it was in danger of closing its doors.
“This is it, if we don’t make any money with this last box, we literally closing in the next week,” said Owner David Familia, one of the owners of 3PC Chicken. He recalled what it was like before the video went viral.
With less than $300 in its bank account, 3PC Chicken was on life support.
Owner James Jones took to social media to ask for suggestions.
That video got into the hands of a TikTok food reviewer.
Content creator, Munchin with Moonshot, visited 3PC Chicken in Whitehall Township to check out the food. He made a video reviewing it from his car. The video went viral.
“Everyone knew about the video before us, everyone was like the video, the video, the room was packed, and we were like what video?” said Jones.
The video, made by Munchin the Moonshot, has over 900,000 views.
David and James, the friends-turned-owners, who were going any route to get people through the door. Now, back to business and focusing on feeding those hungry customers.
“We instantly sold out the little we had, and we were just running to the store every day that week. We literally 4 times our business overnight,” they said.
“We were just able to hire some people,” they said. “People were so patient with us because as people were filing in, it was just us two guys.”
Their story proves that with hard work, a little luck and a boost from social media, anything can happen.
Also getting a boost, is Munchin with Moonshot whose real name is James Gaudio.
“When that video got bigger, I was just blown away that I was able to do that for people, and that made me want to do it more,” Gaudio said.
Gaudio, who is new to the food review scene, joins a growing trend of TikTok food reviewers whose passion for food is reaching millions of people.
“I was reviewing protein bars in my car, and everybody kept commenting like, ‘Hey, you should do some real food here and there.’ So, I started doing real food, and then it kind of took off from there,” he said.
One social media video, now setting the stage for a passion project that could reach new heights.
“It makes me realize the power of the internet and what you can potentially do with it. I only started doing this in January. It hasn’t even been, you know, nine months yet. A total of nine months. Seeing what happened from this video in my short amount of time doing this, it’s just. It’s beyond me. I realize what I can do now from here on out,” Gaudio said.
He hopes to help more restaurant in the future.
With the success 3PC Chicken has seen, the owners tell me they are now looking to give back to the community.
They said they will take some of the money made this month and give it to a local charity.