# Explain the love for Chick-Fil-A? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2019, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654 "2019-07-26T04:52:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/121 "2019-07-27T21:16:43Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Both restaurants seem to be very community focused too. **CFA donates sandwiches to every cause in town**. This is pretty much the only time I eat them. They donate 3 or 4 big insulated bags of sandwiches to a local high school to feed the judges and crew at debate tournaments. I always grab a couple, making a very (Jewish/Catholic/pick appropriate stereotype) distinction that I wasn’t _buying_ the sandwiches, and therefore wasn’t contributing to the bottom line of an outfit I disagree with (morally/politically/probably sports too). ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/122 "2019-07-27T21:24:37Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Note that my previous post is not about gay marriage per se, and would be equally true about any other belief. One does not need to support the beliefs/lifestyle/sexuality/etc of victims to reach out and help them during a tragedy. > > I wouldn’t assume that someone who helped out people after a shooting at a Trump rally actually supported Trump, either. Nobody said anything about it proving that they support gay rights. The point was that they showed kindness and decency despite not believing in gay marriage. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/123 "2019-07-27T22:12:28Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Around here I think service is the #1 reason CFA is so popular. Another good-service-focused restaurant opened here recently, Culver’s, and I think the food is so-so and the pricing is high like CFA but people are raving about it just like they have always raved about CFA. > > Both restaurants seem to be very community focused too. CFA donates sandwiches to every cause in town. While Culver’s hasn’t been here long the franchisees did take like 6 months of hyping themselves up on local social media before they opened (which IMHO is fine). > > I think the emphasis on service goes a LONG way towards endearing a place to middle-class do-dahs (like myself) who don’t always experience it and upper-class people who expect it. I think CFA has always been popular in the south due to it being abundant there and the taste. I think it broke out here in the north (or the Midwest? I don’t know where they’re focused now) due to service. > > People here love nothing more than to bitch about service. They’re ready to burn down KFC and Dunkin because people have gotten their orders wrong or they ran out of product (not unheard of with those two restaurants). People just want to be fussed over if something unfortunate happens, which happens at CFA and Culver’s. They don’t get that from the poor underpaid and overworked kids at the other restaurants. They’re not thinking too deeply about it. They just feel wronged. > > FWIW I don’t eat at CFA myself. I’ve had to go several times because my nieces and friend’s kids are addicted to the place (another draw - indoor playground) and not only do I not like the food and find it expensive, but the whole vibe makes me feel hella awkward as a single, childless, butch-looking liberal woman. Try their chocolate chunk cookie and you’ll be a convert. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/124 "2019-07-27T23:16:48Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Try their chocolate chunk cookie and you’ll be a convert. I’m good. Subway has those white chocolate macadamia nut dealies that win my heart. And the local gas station (GetGo) has a box of 6 chocolate chunk beauties for $3. As for price - I tend to stick with the McDonalds value meal so that’s why I find CFA expensive. You can definitely spend $9 on a meal at any fast food place but I can also get the same amount of calories and satisfaction at McD for $3 including a huge diet pop. I actually prefer chicken “patties” to the high quality “real white meat” stuff. So for me, personally, I get the chicken I prefer for $1 elsewhere. Obviously YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/125 "2019-07-28T06:42:37Z")
Wow. Ok, so I dislike the politics and the stance of the founder/owner of the company on LBGT issues. I still like the sandwiches (got really mad when they d/c’d the chicken salad sandwich!), and they have some of the best chicken tenders available. The waffle fries are so good, I usually scarf them down in the car on the way home, without any condiment. I love the lemonade, and the tea is pretty good, too. They generally employ quality employees who bust butt doing a good job, with a friendly face and a nice attitude. I won’t wait in line for a lunch there like some people do (they often have the longest drive-thru lines in the area, no matter where you go). But I understand why people like them so much. And very little of it has to do with their stance on LGBT issues, or patriotism, or anything else. Their standard fried chicken has a distinctly different taste, which a lot of people really like (and is a lot better than what you can get at most other places, Wendy’s included :mad:). I think before people pooh-pooh something, and start to look for vaguely conspiracy-ish theories explaining the popularity, they might just accept that, while they don’t find the \ particularly appealing, others obviously do. I like In-N-Out and Five Guys for much the same sort of reasons. I generally avoid Taco Bell and Burger King because of the fact that they are the complete opposite of Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out, and Five Guys. I avoid KFC because I’ve had many too many cases where they were out of what I wanted. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/126 "2019-07-28T11:44:26Z")
The customer service aspect is, to me, an important point. I’ve been a part of several fast food transactions (mostly McDonalds) where the worker barely acknowledges that I am a human being. He or she takes my money without a word, hands me my change without a word (nor eye contact), then hands me my order without even a grunt. I’ll take “have a blessed day” over that any time. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/127 "2019-07-28T12:38:30Z")
Around here, at Wendy’s, a spicy chicken BLT, four nuggets, fries, and a medium drink is $4. If you’ve paid a couple of bucks for a fundraiser keychain tag at the beginning of the year, you can add a junior frosty for free. That’s a complete meal, including dessert, for less than half of the price cited for CFA. And a similar meal at Rally’s is only $3. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/128 "2019-07-28T12:41:10Z")
Everybody in this thread agrees that the service and attitude of the employees is great. So now I have a question: how are these employees different than all the other minimum wage workers out there? I assume CFA pays about the same as all the other fast food chains. Is there something else going on? Sure, having a day off every week–and the same day, too-- is a great benefit. You can actually have a bit of control over your life. But you’re still a shift worker at a fast food place. Surely not all of them love their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/129 "2019-07-28T13:48:37Z")
There is a Wendy’s very close to me and I love their Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Last night my wife was out getting a few things and she grabbed a Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Sandwich for me. It was way better than the Wendy’s version. I will probably drive a bit further in the future for a better sandwich. I don’t agree with their political/social stance, but I don’t normally go to a restaurant with a check sheet that I make the chef, owner, servers fill out before I decide if I will eat there. It was a tasty sandwich which is what I’m spending my money for. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/130 "2019-07-28T17:46:52Z")
Some interesting Chick-fil-A facts: 1. Their biggest issue is lost sales. They believe that they could grow their revenue in the US by 50% if they could capture the people that turn past their restaurants because the perception that the wait will be too long, because of the filled parking lots and long drive thru lanes. 2. They invented the double drive through lane to increase flow through the drive through. 3. They have the largest revenue per store of any franchised restaurant by a huge margin. (approx. $20 billion in revenue for approx. 2,400 stores = greater than $8 million per store) Roughly 10x McDonalds. 4. Store employees are **not** employees of the Chick-fil-A corporation. They are employees of the individual franchisees. There is no corporate staff training program. 5. Most of the franchisees started as employees of other local franchisees, i.e. grew up in the system. 6. To become a franchisee, there is a long vetted interview process (more than 6 months). And very few franchisees own more than one store. 7. The chicken breast filet, nuggets and tenders are cooked from raw chicken in the store, in oil based pressure cookers. The spice mix breading is a corporate secret. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/131 "2019-07-28T18:59:06Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Because it both tastes good AND most people either consider it a pain in the ass to make themselves or they wouldn’t even know where to start. Fried chicken isn’t a pain in the ass to make. It’s the cleaning up afterwards that’s a pain in the ass. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/132 "2019-07-28T19:46:19Z")
it’s pretty standard for fast food places to be franchises and the employees work for the local franchise . Not sure if it’s still true but in the past to own a Dominos franchise you had to have previously worked at a Dominos so that is not unique to CFA. (the idea that owners start out as employees) The founder died in 2014 and that made people think they would open on Sundays but obviously it has not happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/133 "2019-07-28T21:12:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Around here, at Wendy’s, a spicy chicken BLT, four nuggets, fries, and a medium drink is $4. If you’ve paid a couple of bucks for a fundraiser keychain tag at the beginning of the year, you can add a junior frosty for free. That’s a complete meal, including dessert, for less than half of the price cited for CFA. And a similar meal at Rally’s is only $3. Wow. Here in Alberta, a Wendy’s burger, fries and a drink is about $11 (without the nuggets). Dairy Queen is slightly more expensive. A McDonald’s 10 piece chicken nugget meal is $11.50. Based on our exchange rate alone, the Wendy’s meal should be maybe $6-7. The rest I guess is the added cost of doing business here - primarily the $15/hr minimum wage, I suppose. The error rates at all these places are crazy high - my guess is it’s because labor is too expensive, so they have less staff and make them work harder. \*maybe this is unique to Edmonton. I just looked at a Wendy’s menu in Toronto, and prices were lower. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/134 "2019-07-28T21:15:23Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > My wife and I regularly joke about opening “Pagan Chick Fil A” - Only opens on Sundays, and all proceeds go to support LGBT causes. There’s already been a[spoof article about this.](https://babylonbee.com/news/new-atheist-chick-fil-a-competitor-only-open-on-sundays) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/135 "2019-07-28T21:21:33Z")
I used to work near a food court. At lunch CFA almost always had the longest line and there were lots of moms with kids buying CFA. Many of the kids were still in strollers. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/136 "2019-07-28T21:23:15Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Wow. Here in Alberta, a Wendy’s burger, fries and a drink is about $11 (without the nuggets). Dairy Queen is slightly more expensive. A McDonald’s 10 piece chicken nugget meal is $11.50. Yeah, here in the US, Wendy’s has a 4 for $4 promotion, and all the items **Chronos** listed is part of that promotion. I just looked up the combo you mentioned (I went with a Dave’s double, fries, and medium drink) and it rings up as $9.27 with tax at my local Wendy’s, which would be $12.21 Canadian (wow, I remember when both dollars were pretty much at parity–I totally missed that they’ve diverged that much). So it’s just a matter of whether you have the deals/discount menus or not. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/137 "2019-07-28T21:29:34Z")
I like McDonald’s southern chicken sandwich much better than Chick Filet’s. I wish they would bring it back and make it a permanent fixture. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/138 "2019-07-28T21:51:11Z")
For the people trying to say it’s the politics…I doubt the average person making a fast food decision either knows or cares about the religious beliefs or political persuasion of Chik-Fil-A’s owners. It’s not even part of the equation for 80-90% of the people eating there. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/139 "2019-07-28T22:02:07Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I like McDonald’s southern chicken sandwich much better than Chick Filet’s. I wish they would bring it back and make it a permanent fixture. It was a nice chicken sandwich. Not as good as Chick Fil A’s to me, but I have loads more McD’s to me than CFAs (I have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to one – only to remember they’re closed on Sundays), so I would absolutely sign the petition for McD’s to bring the sandwich back as a permanent item. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654/140 "2019-07-28T22:17:25Z")
I’ve eaten at one when there were no other options. The one thing that really impressed me was their shakes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-love-for-chick-fil-a/837654.md?page=8)