I feel really bad about this. I’m very much in favor of gay marriage. On the other hand, their chicken sandwiches are really good. Probably the best of the fast food chicken sandwiches.
I only know this because awhile back at work we were considering buying franchises (I’m in commercial real estate and we were brainstorming ideas for ways to make money off vacant properties), so Chick-Fil-A is one of the ones I looked into.
You can’t really get into it as an investment. Like with Subway you an realistically have a franchise with $50-60k capital and good enough credit or collateral to finance another $150k or so (around $200k total investment, on average), and no matter what the principal agents of the company buying a franchise has to attend “Subway indoctrination” up in Connecticut. But basically that just means for two weeks you take BS classes and then work a week in a Subway (we didn’t go into restaurants at all, so I’ve never done any of this.) But once you finish that you can basically buy up a ton of Subways and be an absentee owner and just appoint a GM to manage all the restaurants.
With Chick-Fil-A they just don’t want that, they basically want a store manager who might some day get to be in charge of 3-4 stores and who is really dedicated to the business. He gets a small share of store profits and a pretty decent salary for the food industry, but he’s not really a business owner, I think their income is actually 100% W2 income and they probably aren’t even registered as a business with the Secretary of State and etc, so they really aren’t running a business as an owner but as an operator for a corporation.
All that being said, it’s a good opportunity for some people, just not people looking for pure investment opportunities. Now to earlier questions in the thread about serving gay people or employing gay people in general Chick-Fil-A isn’t going to kick openly gay customers out of their stores and they probably will be fine hiring gay employees as long as they fit the “polite and neat mold.”
But I have heard that the operators (the pseudo-owners) have to pass extremely rigorous interviews where, without openly making it 100% obvious (but being obvious nonetheless) my understanding is the candidates are basically made to reveal their marital status, whether they are active in a church or etc. Basically Chick-Fil-A really wants “its kind of people” in those operator positions, and if you don’t hit the right tick marks (ideally married family man, attends a church etc) you probably won’t be accepted as an operator.
What are you ON?
And did you bring enough for everyone?
You’re equating gay teens to homicidal psychopaths?
I think he was comparing to the president of CFA, not to gay teens.
In the last sixty years, we’ve gone from homosexuality being literally illegal in most of the US, to federal recognition of marriage being a legitimate topic of debate at the national level, with the President himself supporting SSM. I’d call that productive. And we didn’t accomplish that by pretending that naked bigotry is just a minor difference of opinion. We did it by calling out the bigots when they opened their mouth, and making it clear that you can’t have a civilized discourse when one side of the discussion is operating from the assumption that the other side is some sort of subhuman.
I’m a straight, married women without a kid who has been boycotting Dominos and Chik-fil-A for years because their food sucks. My prize is that I justify my perferences as non-violent social protest.
Interesting info on where Chick-Fil-A spends their money and runs their business…
I doubt Chick-Fil-A’s anti-gay agenda will hurt them. Based on their geography and target clientele, it may even be a positive for them.
I have eaten at a few in the past (and thought it was pretty decent, for fast-food); once I learned of their agenda I swore them off. I will not give them any of my money, as I find their views offensive. I’m not gay, but I have a few close family members that are. So this really rubs me the wrong way.
I don’t know anything about their hiring/employment policies. That might be a separate legal issue. But as for their support for bigoted anti-gay organizations - I find it distasteful, but it’s their right to do what they want with their money. My right is to refuse to patronize their restaurants, which I do.
/has gotten a bit awkward when I’m on work business in the South
So… my take on this is… in a world with many choices for chicken sandwiches, pizza, and dairy products, I really can’t see spending my money at an establishment that in some way supports or funds (directly or indirectly) attacks on me and my family. As a lesbian with a wife and two children, I simply choose not to get lunch at Chick-Fil-A, dinner from Dominos, or milk delivery from Oberweis.
Is that a boycott? I dunno. It’s not like I’m doing without. It’s not like there aren’t other chicken, pizza, and dairy companies out there. It’s a small choice, that probably will not have the slightest impact on these businesses, but it lets me act consistently with my beliefs about who I am and who my family is. I do this for the companies that I am aware have presidents, CEOs or other leaders who openly speak out against gay rights and/or fund other groups who actively work to undermine my ability to have the protections enjoyed by straight couples with families. I am sure the list will grow over time.
Some of my coworkers like to grab Chick-Fil-A for lunch. When asked if I would like to get some too, I politely refuse, explain why, and let them make their own choices – that are hopefully consistent with their own beliefs. I’ve made mine.
That’s precisely my point, someone acted as though we shouldn’t try to lessen a group’s power simply because members of that group didn’t consciously choose to be a part of that group, It’s not a valid argument.
What if gays had chosen to be gay, does that justify treating them a certain way? I think instead society should decide how it treats people based on their actions and how those actions affect the rest of society.
This really highlights “first world problems” when you are thinking about how you get to define yourself based on what shit you don’t need you happen to buy.
Wait, I have to ask (and it might already have been) how is this news to anyone? Serious? This is Chick-Fil-A. The non-open on Sunday, advertises Christian fundie camp on their place mats, serious fundie Christian place? And people are shocked? This is what they’ve always been about.
Sorry for the hijack, but nobody will even notice it.
I really like KFC, not because it’s good for me, but because it tastes good. Their biscuits I can do without. At most I might eat the center out, and discard the rest.
On a work trip I was lodged right next to a Bojangles. I’d heard about the chain from books I’d read, and decided to try it. I got a small meal with some sort of cherry drink.
The cherry drink must have been like %135 sugar, because it was like ambrosia. I almost ate the remaining ice in my cup, which I never do. The chicken was good. Nothing more, nothing less. I took my obligatory bite of the biscuit, and I was amazed.
They must coat those things in pure butter, cholesterol, and unicorn blood, because I devoured that thing and wanted two more. I wouldn’t bat an eye if I saw someone dump a truckload of KFC biscuits into a landfill, but I might fight a baby for a Bojangles biscuit. I’d certainly steal their candy for some of that cherry drink.
Sorry, carry on.
/Hijack
Sorry for the slight hijack, but I was wondering if anyone knew if Charley’s Grilled Subs does similar things to Chick-Fil-A, politically (I don’t believe they are also closed on Sundays, AFAIK). I noticed that they collecting for a charity that specifically says it, among other things, spreads “the word of God” to the Third World, but a Google search didn’t turn up anything particularly, uh, “damning.”
What was said really shocks nobody in the know. The fact that it was an official statement is what has people questioning things.
So what you’re saying is you and **Bricker **pulled a Wonder Twins and actually went to this guys house and chatted him up on the topic? Cool. How’d that turn out? 
I’d have to wager that you would only be able to persuade a very specific minority of the population on any given idea with the tack you’re using here. I for one couldn’t care less if we were talking about the rightfulness of genocide; the way you’re coming off isn’t gonna bend my ear. And I think you know that - hence the dodges at my suggestions that you write this guy a letter. Maybe you’ve been quite successful in the past at persuading other Dopers to say that they now agree with you on whatever. Take that into the real world, and instead of this intellectual masturbation, try persuading the people who a change of mind would do some good. Like the Pres of CFA; consensus seems to be that he needs it. Go make it happen.
Can you believe the amount of street cred your ideas and opinions would have if you were successful? And since most people tend to agree with you on at least some level - I’d have to say it’d get the ball rolling just the way you want it to. How much effort would it take you to just type up a letter, sign it, and mail it to the guy? Better yet, get a whole ton of people to sign it too.
“Well people like that never listen (broad strokes) and he probably has a mail screener (excuse) and he’s obviously a Christian Fundie who’s totally ignorant of reason (pitiful excuse) so I won’t bother (lazy or afraid?)”
Someone had a nerve that was itching to get poked. 
My gf is in advertising. At a party I asked what would happen if a company like Chick-Fil-A approached them for advertising work. Talk about a shitstorm! Most people said there was no way the agency would even consider. One guy mentioned that times are tough and money is money.
I backed away from the argument as soon as I could.
So. . .who does their advertising and how does Chick get around the fact that a certain percentage of the creative people working on the account could very well be gay?