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It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

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Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#141

Post by _jasper »

markovbot wrote: post #103
forrestthewoods wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ending ties with anti-gay groups. Salvation Army. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Calling those groups "anti-gay" and protesting a fast food restaurant for donating to them is absurd.

Could you please elaborate on why those groups aren't "anti-gay"? I've never heard of "Fellowship of Christian Athletes", but the Salvation Army is absolute anti-gay.

For me personally, the phrase "anti-gay group" muddies the waters because although Salvation Army (1) does (or did) have some anti-gay policies, and (2) is a "group", its main purpose is to be a food or shelter charity; not to pursue the disenfranchisement of gays through say, political compaigning.

To illustrate, I might refer to an organization under religion X as an "anti-women religious group" because perhaps religion X had some policy on women's activites that I believed were sexist; then for me "anti-women religious group" would be a technically correct phrase in that X is "anti-women" and "a religious group", but the phrasing would probably be objectionable to practitioners of the religion who don't see those particular policies as fundamental to their religion, and perhaps didn't even consider the policies sexist in the first place.

In general, I don't think I often see this loose use of terminology applied to other cases; like I don't think people call Nike a pro-child-labor company, although if that were the topic of discussion I might say Nike uses child labor. To me it's about avoiding ambiguity.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#142

Post by rukittenme »

cryptoz wrote: post #115
forrestthewoods wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> extremely, violently anti-gay Nice edit. They help 23 million people a year, without any type of discrimination. They have at least one dorm exclusively for transgender individuals. Their charity services literally benefit millions of LGBTQ individuals every year. But if you want to call that "extremely", "violently", or "intensely" anti-gay then I certainly can't stop you.

Editing to remove accurate but aggressive words is a common piece of advice you hear on HN. I stand by original comment and my edit. > They help 23 million people a year, without any type of discrimination. This is false. > They have at least one dorm exclusively for transgender individuals. Their charity services literally benefit millions of LGBTQ individuals every year. Good acts do not undo bad acts. > But if you…

You gave yourself three chances to defend your position and each time you failed to attempt it.

I understand two things about the Salvation Army. They serve the most vulnerable in their community(-ies) and they hold religious beliefs which run against the politics of the day.

That second point may give you some sense of justification. But consider this, on the Salvation Army's website, one of their top line issues is serving LGBTQ community.

That strikes me as odd for an organization described by you as "extremely, violently anti-gay". It seems to me that the Salvation Army is not against an LGBTQ person. They may disagree with their choices but are perfectly happy to alleviate their homelessness, addiction, hunger, poverty, etc.

Are you not able to discern the difference between political disagreement and violence? Are the Salvation Army not the pinnacle of what it means to be tolerant? They're willing to serve those whom they disagree with. In my mind, they're exactly what is required to have a pluralistic society.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#143

Post by cryptoz »

rukittenme wrote: post #142
cryptoz wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Editing to remove accurate but aggressive words is a common piece of advice you hear on HN. I stand by original comment and my edit. > They help 23 million people a year, without any type of discrimination. This is false. > They have at least one dorm exclusively for transgender individuals. Their charity services literally benefit millions of LGBTQ individuals every year. Good acts do not undo bad acts. > But if you…

You gave yourself three chances to defend your position and each time you failed to attempt it. I understand two things about the Salvation Army. They serve the most vulnerable in their community(-ies) and they hold religious beliefs which run against the politics of the day. That second point may give you some sense of justification. But consider this, on the Salvation Army's website, one of their top line issues is…

[flagged]

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#144

Post by mattl »

RugnirViking wrote: post #66

Honestly, until now I always thought that chick-fil-A would do like wraps with chickpeas in from the name. I wonder how little they realise their brand holds weight in the UK. I know I'm only a single datapoint, but a lot of these american fast food names that haven't come to the UK already have quite a hurdle to jump.

It’s a pronunciation issue?

Americans say fil-eh British say fill-it.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#145

Post by Mountain_Skies »

hinkley wrote: post #87

When I was a teenager, I was told by a manager that the shake machine at McDonald’s cost more than I make in a year now . The amount of credit you’re operating under as a franchise owner... I don’t know how they sleep at night.

Teens are often broke, but not as often as a McDonald's shake machine. Funny they cost so much while being out of service so much of the time.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#146

Post by jonas21 »

xwowsersx wrote: post #45

> At $4.2m per store, Chick-fil-A’s average revenue is the highest of any fast-food chain in America, dwarfing both direct competitors (KFC; $1.2m) and bigger brands (McDonald’s; $2.8m) Wow, I did not know this. Why is that?

Short answer: because both Chick-fil-A and McDonald's want it that way.

Longer answer: McDonald's has chosen to optimize for total revenue, while Chick-fil-A has chosen to optimize for something more like ROI on each store. This is a direct consequence of the different franchise models, where McDonald's takes a cut of sales and doesn't have an ownership stake in each location, while Chick-fil-A take a cut of both sales and profits, and has ownership of the physical location.

As dave5104 mentioned, there are over 14,000 McDonald's locations in the US vs around 2,000 Chick-fil-As. McDonald's has saturated the market to the point that individual McDonald's locations cannibalize the sales of other nearby locations.

For example, there are 14 McDonald's locations within a 5-mile radius of where I live. If you closed down half of them, total revenue would probably drop some, but not anywhere near half. Many people who wanted McDonald's would just travel a little bit further to get to one. As a result, per-store revenue would go up. Per-store profit would go up by an even greater percentage since there are fixed costs per location. And if you closed the right number (which might be more or less than half), total profit would go up as well.

This would be great for franchisees, but from McDonalds' perspective it's worse since total sales would decrease, and that's what they're getting a cut of. Chick-fil-A's model, where they take a cut of both sales and profits aligns their interests more with their franchisees.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#147

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

frogpelt wrote: post #42
virtuous_signal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think either of these acceptance rates are computed by casting the widest net possible. Nevertheless I have to believe Chick-Fil-A has a very rigorous process for hiring managers, who in turn know how to hire good workers; I have never once encountered the typical surly fast food worker at any of their restaurants.

Same. I ate at a food court that had a Chick Fil A and the Chick Fil A employee refilled everyone's drinks at our table even though they weren't all bought at Chick Fil A. That's just not normal for fast food workers.

I have had a similar experience as well, FWIW.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#148

Post by leetbulb »

HeWhoLurksLate wrote: post #127
irrational wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They opened up the first one near me in a Portland Oregon suburb. The place was packed whenever they were open with drive-thru cars spilling out into the street. I thought the madness would end after a few days/weeks, but it's been years and they still have a huge draw. I went in there once just to try it. It was good, but not the best thing I've ever had. I wonder if it is nostalgia from people from the SE USA that…

Lemonade, yo! Honestly though, my guess is probably consistent customer service- everyone seems to be happy- and consistently high quality food. Also, where else would I get waffle fries?

Get a waffle fry cutter and fry them in duck fat.

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#149

Post by charmides »

sixtypoundhound wrote: post #93
i_am_proteus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet people choose to buy franchises rather than start their own independent shops. Proliferation of franchises indicates that this is mutually beneficial. Also, bear in mind that the franchise's corporate brand reputationsuffers when a franchise fails, so there's inherently some risk sharing.

Sure - and franchises are actively marketed, by a commission sales force and any number of people who get a 'finders fee' should you happen to sign up through their channel. There is an active push to herd people into franchises. They tend to target unemployed middle-aged managers, since that audience is often driven by ego to "be the boss" and has the disposable funds to pony up a large setup fee. I was aggressively…

What did you end up doing instead?

Re: It costs $10k to ‘own’ a Chick-fil-A franchise

#150

Post by Pfhreak »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #112
cryptoz wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salvation Army is extremely anti-gay. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/16/21003560/salvation-... Please do not spread such dangerous falsehoods like stating that they have not been anti-gay. These false ideas can get people hurt. Salvation Army has a very long, very intense history of going out of its way to harm LGBT people.

> extremely, violently anti-gay Nice edit. They help 23 million people a year, without any type of discrimination. They have at least one dorm exclusively for transgender individuals. Their charity services literally benefit millions of LGBTQ individuals every year. But if you want to call that "extremely", "violently", or "intensely" anti-gay then I certainly can't stop you.

> without any type of discrimination

The Salvation Army is a church, and is regulated as a church. They can inquire about your religious or personal beliefs when hiring or before providing services.

They threatened to close in NYC if they had to support gay partner's benefits in the city.

There's a laundry list of discriminatory behavior from the Salvation Army, it's patently absurd to say they operate "without any form of discrimination".

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