I’d say it’s less that Chick-Fil-A is overpriced, but more that the larger chains have relentlessly driven down their costs in comparison.
I think the only chicken franchise that doesn’t have a local presence here is Bojangles and I’ve tried them all at one point or another. The food is consistently good and I’m a fan of the fresh lemonade. The waffle fries aren’t too bad either. The chicken breasts are just that, solid breast meat that hasn’t been mangled, chopped, processed, and reassembled into patties. The nuggets are just cut up breasts. The brine and breading are pretty much exactly what I would do making fried chicken here at home.
I don’t care for their politics, but I’m sure that if I dug far enough down into every company I do business with I’d find something objectionable.
I hadn’t really thought about the above average service but now that several people have mentioned it I can only remember one time in 30 years when I had an unpleasant time. I once complained that my nuggets had been boxed up too long and the kid actually wanted to fight me because I was “calling him a liar about them being fresh made”. The bottom of the box was literally soaked through with oil from the nuggets. That takes a while. Unfortunately for him the local franchise owner was a friend of mine.
I may be mis-remembering this, but I believe even back then (the mid-70s) McDonald’s let you customize. The problem was that if you placed a special order, you’d have to wait and wait and wait, but if you didn’t want your burger customized you’d get it almost immediately (because they were pre-made).
I recall a Burger King commercial that depicted a McDonald’s customer asking for some minor modification, like “no pickles,” and the action suddenly changed to slow motion.
I’d like to third the poor setup. Round here, not only is their parking lot small but the exit feeds into a Wal*Mart exit which is usually backed up past the Chick-Fil-A exit. So between the artificial crowdedness, their (former (??)) politics, not opening on Sundays, and high price for the volume, I don’t go there anymore.
It may give other corporations second thoughts about positions such as this. In addition, I doubt the sincerity of any change motivated by money. However, this is just one factor amongst many in where I spend my dollars and the lingering distaste for them is not the only reason I actively avoid them these days. Similarly for Papa John’s, I hadn’t gone to them in awhile due to their high prices and worsening pizza before they pulled their “Obamacare surcharge” stunt, but now I will actively not patronize them again.
Arkansas. Where are you that you can get a sandwich, large Coca-Cola, and a large order of fries for $4.50?
I think in a lot of places it is mainly a food court place. Or at least that’s how it was introduced and endured at first. Speaking of my own experience with the place, for many years in my area it was only a food court option and among the food court options it was the only name place. Our local food court had them, a generic pizza place, a generic Philly sub place, and a local Chinese place. Then there were snack, dessert, and drinks-only stands. So I’m sure being the only big brand helped. And they always stand out in the mall handing out samples.
I’ve never cared for their food too much, but I think offering “not hamburgers” and a version of fries that is slightly different must help. Personally I’d rather eat a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s or something like that if I want a chicken sandwich. Or at least I did years ago, when I was more likely to eat something like that.
I’ve had workers at McDonalds and other random places say that to me.
I live in central Ohio. Outside of the dollar/value menus, almost all adult fast food meals are $7 and up. For comparison purposes, the chicken sandwich meals at Wendys are around $7. I had a quarter pounder meal at Mcdonalds yesterday that was over $7 with taxes. Almost all sandwich-only options are $3.99 and up. That’s why it’s actually a good deal when McDonalds or Arbys or whoever runs a 2 for $5 on regular sandwiches. I’m not sure how much the McDonald’s chicken sandwich meal is, or the BK chicken that resembles rejected school cafeteria patties, but I don’t consider them comparable. I don’t think KFC or Popeye’s have a consistent normal size sandwich and meal, but the last time I went to KFC I paid $7.49 for a very bland 2 piece meal.
The problem with custom orders at McDoanlds is half the time they forget to make it custom anyway.
I always order no pickles and half the time they leave the pickles on. Same with adding Big Mac sauce on a burger, which is even worse since they’ll charge you for it but still not get it.
Your recollection is accurate. I was a fussy eater as a child* in the 1970s, and when we would go to McDonald’s for a meal, I’d order a hamburger with only ketchup on it. Since that was a custom order, it’d have to be specially prepared, and that’d take a couple of minutes.
Meanwhile, during lunch and dinner rush periods, McDonald’s would keep an inventory of pre-made sandwiches (with the full regular set of condiments) ready to go. So, if you ordered a Big Mac with everything on it, the server would just pull it out of the chute, and you’d have your meal right away.
*- Only slightly less fussy now.
That is my recollection as well. The only special order my mom would allow me to place was a Filet-O-Fish without tartar sauce and that took several more minutes to come out. I’ve only completed one McDonald’s burger in my life* and that was back in the 90s when they briefly tried to advertise that hey, they also could make special orders, but I didn’t find anything special about the taste of the burger itself.
When I worked at Burger King, they too had a “level” or pre-made regular stuff. However, special orders were almost always made in the same order as they were placed along with “regular” orders rather than having to stand aside from the line and wait.
*Because I didn’t like ketchup and mustard on my burgers. I still don’t like mustard at all, and sometimes put a little ketchup on my burger, but still don’t trust the burgermeisters to put the right amount on.
The CFA we eat at (or grab stuff to go from) is on MD 2 in Edgewater, MD, which is on the south side of Annapolis. It’s been there for at least 15 years - not a new location. It’s usually mobbed in the evenings, and they’re building a new one just a couple miles north on MD 2 in Annapolis, which I’m hoping will ease the crowds somewhat.
I like CFA, for these reasons:
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They make a good sandwich. The chicken is tasty, and their spicy chicken sandwich’s spice level is right in my wheelhouse.
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Their waffle fries are some of the best fast-food fries around, way better than the fries at McD’s, BK, or Wendy’s. (I’ve never understood the appeal of McD’s fries - not bad when they first come over the counter, but give 'em 10 minutes to cool down, and they’re awful.) Bojangles with lots of cajun seasoning are the best, but there’s no Bojangles that’s particularly convenient to where I live, dammit.
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The CFAs with kids’ play areas maintain a substantially higher level of cleanliness than the McD’s with play areas. As the Firebug has been in the play area age range for most of his life to date, that’s been an important factor for us.
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My wife, who has been drinking sweet tea since she was weaned, is a big fan of CFA’s sweet tea.
And yeah, the service is friendly, and they’ll bring the stuff to your table if it’s gonna be a wait.
My take on CFA and SSM is: we won! SSM is the law of the land. Truett Cathy’s heirs can give all the money they want to anti-SSM organizations now, and it won’t change that. My wife and I boycotted CFA while the fate of SSM was still up in the air, but the goal was accomplished.
I can’t compare CFA’s chicken sandwich with those of the main burger chains. I’m not usually thinking ‘chicken’ when I go to a burger place.
As far as sheer taste for a chicken sandwich that I can remember from a fast food joint, it’s a tie between CFA’s regular and Wendy’s Spicy Chicken. However, Wendy’s is much larger for the same price, especially the chicken patty.
No, everyone DIDN’T do that, not back in 1974(?) when the Burger King ad campaign debuted. Very famously, getting McDonald’s at the time to give you a specially made burger was almost impossible. It forced them to actually fry up a patty just for you, toast a bun just for you, and then assemble your burger. That’s because at the time, McDonald’s made its burgers in multiples of the same burger type at one time. So, they would slap the needed frozen burger patties for 10 Big Macs, say, on the griddle. Then they would toast up the buns for those burgers. Then they would assemble them. Then they would put them in the slot, with a number in front of them indicating when they were past their hold time and needed to be “wasted.” If, as a result, you wanted a Big Mac, but hold the sauce, they had to make that from scratch.
The upside of the process was that you could get your meal served in 30 seconds after the order was taken and money changed hands; all the counter person had to do was turn around and grab your burger from the correct slot, grab one of the pre-made sodas of the right size, and grab a pre-filled fry bag. The down-side was, well, exactly what Burger King pointed out in their commercial.
The thing that made Burger King able to do the “have it your way” campaign was that they used a continuous conveyor-belt broiler for their burgers. So making a “special order” was just a matter of taking the next patty that came out cooked, the next toasted bun of the appropriate type, and making up your burger to order. Even if the burger required a special patty or bun not already on the way through, from the time a frozen patty was placed on the broiler belt (or bun on the bun belt) to completion of cooking was something like two minutes. Carl’s Jr. had the same cooking process, and, thus, was able to do special orders easily. Wendy’s was more like McDonalds, though they were less mass-production about it, so as I recall, a Wendy’s special order was less onerous than a McDonald’s, but not as easy as a Burger King/Carl’s Jr.
I do admit Wendy’s spicy chicken is pretty darned good and, in fact, that’s the only thing I ever order from Wendy’s anymore. (I tried the sriracha one that came out a couple months ago, and that just was kind of a mess. I’ve just given up on their burgers. Liked 'em in the 80s, not anymore.)
not only can you pick what you want on the sandwich, you can also pick how much of each condiment you want. You don’t get a default amount. Also they have Texas pete sauce packets which is a nice option.
Awesome! I had no idea they had Texas Pete sauce! Oh, man, that makes me happy.
I’m still perplexed at the idea that Chick Fil A is somehow odd or special that it allows custom orders. Perhaps they’re better about getting them right, but any fast food outlet I’ve been to has allowed me to custom order, even down to “extra pickles.”
Hype, kind of like Five Guys, I guess. In the meantime Del Taco started opening nearby, and no one gives it a second glance. Wish it were a Taco Cabana, though.
I’m surprised by the folks who associate them with mall food courts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in a food court, myself. Around here, a food court will usually contain a Sbarro’s, a Panda Express, a sandwich shop (usually Quizno’s, occasionally Subway or Penn Station), one burger joint (most often but not always McDonald’s), one or two one-offs you’ve never heard of, and a few non-meal places like Orange Julius or Auntie’s Pretzels.