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The Roaring Success of Chick-fil-A in New York City
Remember when Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that Chicago would not welcome a certain chicken sandwich restaurant? Or when Boston Mayor Tom Menino wrote a letter to that same company’s president saying that there was “no place for your company” in Boston? Good times. But in spite of liberal outrage over an executive expressing his views on marriage and sexuality, the hateful bigots at Chick-fil-A have opened a restaurant in Manhattan. And each day the line to enter winds down the sidewalk.
Just another success story the Mainstream Media won’t tell you.
Your humble correspondent’s interviews in line last weekend revealed that patrons were mostly New Yorkers originally from the South, or people who had tried Chick-fil-A previously while in the South. They were loyal, eager, and willing to wait for a few minutes in a line that looked daunting but moved rapidly. All our orders were handled with typical Chick-fil-A courtesy, and we had our order in less than twenty minutes.
The place was full, but not chaotic, and they clearly had a system for handling the volume. When I asked one of the staff if the crowd was typical, he said Saturday is their slow day; they are even busier on weekdays.
So, I imagine the clientele is made up of people who: 1) Don’t know they’re supposed to be offended by Chick-fil-A; 2) Know but don’t care; or 3) Go there on purpose to support the business. Or maybe people just love delicious waffle fries.
The restaurant opened in October, and almost immediately broke the chain’s sales records. Chick-fil-A itself outperforms similar restaurants in terms of sales even though it has fewer locations and is only open six days a week.
Published in Culture, Marriage
I have never gotten to try Chick-fil-A. South-eastern Washington is boring, apparently, and even tho I spent Thanksgiving weekend in western Washington, it still wasn’t close enough to any to be with a trip. I feel like I’m missing out on so much and I’m tired of McDonald’s and the other usual fast food places. I have lots of kids so I frequent them way more than I should.
Your name was never more apt.
The next question should have been, “Have you surveyed the founders or presidents of every other restaurant chain in the area to make sure they are pro-gay marriage before eating there?”
Look, there is opinion, and then there is objective fact. Such as: grapefruit is horrible. You can say you like it, but I know you don’t really. You are eating it for some other reason, like maybe you like that stupid little serrated spoon, or you think it’s cool. But you don’t eat it because you like it. The same goes for Chik-fil-A. You eat there because you want to stick it to the libs. Or because you like it when the gal comes out and refills your pop for you. But it just ain’t because you like the food. It can’t be.
;-)
Don’t besmirch my good name.
Wait, where do you live? I spent Thanksgiving in south east Washington.
chick-fil-a is ok but I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. It’s a chicken sandwich for heaven’s sake!
I love the Socratic method.
We did all the time in Round Rock. Our Chik-fil-a was right next to the golden arches. Taking it to the man….
That’s a good point. But I still think Jeremy Corbyn is loopier than Bernie Sanders. To hold left-wing ideology as more important than your family’s education is the living definition of political fanaticism.
This is the dilemma faced by many good-hearted people.
Do they stick around a bad community trying to improve it from within and risk their children, or move away?
Do you love America enough to sacrifice? What would you sacrifice?
Jay Nordlinger mused on one of his podcasts here that standing up against Cuban or other regimes is a tough choice to make when it could put your family in danger. He doesn’t know if he could do it. I don’t know either.
When I worked at a hospital across the street from a chickfila, I convinced a friend of mine to go there by causing it Jesus-chicken. She seemed to think that was funny and that made it ok, versus politics…plus I couched eating Jesus chicken as an act of protest from a feminist-lesbian.
I hadn’t thought of it like that. Still, I think you are confusing apples and oranges a bit here. Firstly, dissidents have radically changed societies before. Jeremy Corbyn having his kid attend a bad school won’t make that school into a good one because that school. In China, I knew a classically-liberal guy who said, “It’s fine to die for China’s freedom but I don’t want to die for nothing.”
Jeremy Corbyn political devotion seems not to be tethered to reality. Then again, I don’t know how to go about improving an English school system.
So granting the proposition that one man can’t make a difference, what then? Every man for himself? Don’t try to help others because it’s just a drop in the ocean?
I like what Henry David Thoreau had to say about this: (my paraphrase) that you are obligated to do something, but not obligated to sacrifice everything.
… from Civil Disobedience.
Interesting. How do you measure whether one died for nothing?
Did the students at the Tiananmen Square die for nothing?
What about Tank man? (I assume he was murdered, but the “official” story is that “he was never arrested.”)
(Status of secret plan to hijack Chick-Fil-A thread: In Progress.)
Pretty sure no one has ever eaten grapefruit because they “think it’s cool”.
Also, classic chicken sandwich, box of eight nuggets, and large diet lemonade FTW.
I’m just not that interested in Chik-fil-A. I’ve tried it a few times. The service at drive thru window is good, and courteous, but I find the food less interesting than Taco Bell.
I think you are wrong there. The grapefruit was the original hipster food. They ate it before it was cool. Making it cool.
I enjoyed grapefruit before hipsters were conceived. Definition of enjoyed: I selected grapefruit over other foods offered at the time. I will grant that many don’t like grapefruit, but disagree on making the dislike absolute.
Since other cultures hold brains, insects and partly formed ducklings-in-the-shell in high culinary esteem, wouldn’t it be more accurate to simply state your total rejection of grapefruit (and certain fast-food chicken joints) and let the rest of us decide on our own what we like? Unless you have some empirical proof about that citrus (or chicken sandwiches) you have have yet to share…
Congratulations, Olive; your post received a shout-out from Fred in the “Daily Shot.”
Their to-go containers are also not designed to help people eat in the car.
Burritos win again.
I love Chick-fil-A, but I’d drive past a McDonalds to go hungry.