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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

#181

Post by philwelch »

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…

> Are you not able to discern the difference between political disagreement and violence?

This conflation is one of the defining features of the social justice left.

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

#182

Post by chii »

matwood wrote: post #174
Reedx wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've been curious about that maybe you or others here have some insight on: Do you think they'd do even better if they were open 7 days/wk? Or is taking a day off one of the things contributing to their success?

I think it lends to their success. First there is a bit of a lack of supply feeling. I think it drives people to go because it’s closed on Sundays, even if those same people had no real intention to go on Sunday. People are weird like that. I also think every Sunday off helps them find and retain better workers.

> I think it drives people to go because it’s closed on Sundays, even if those same people had no real intention to go on Sunday.

that's interesting - and you also see this FOMO in all aspects of life, and some clever/insidious marketing can create this artificial scarcity to drive up demand.

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

#183

Post by asdff »

privateSFacct wrote: post #160
jonas21 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sal…

Interesting some decades ago I think McDonald's did a study that led to something called the 4 minute McDonald's universe which was a distance they found people would go for spur of the moment purchasing. Obviously impractical, but this idea of optimizing for total revenue has been around for a bit I think.

And it's not limited to mcdonalds. Starbucks is getting notorious for this. Here is an area by me with three starbii: https://goo.gl/maps/qR2XLLVYmqiyrHtLA

One in the vons, directly across the street from one in the ralphs, and if you head north on vermont in this street view you will hit a burger king. Today that is a freestanding starbucks. Three starbucks locations in less than a square mile.

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

#184

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

CDSlice wrote: post #178
SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Politics aside, the food is awesome, fast, and polite. Is it though? I really don't get it. Chick-fil-A's entire menu consists of unremarkable chicken sandwich variations, and unremarkable... everything else. It's just not very good - at least compared to other fast food options. It doesn't stand out to me. I can't figure out why it stands out to so many other people. I think the push-back against them from LGBTQ a…

I think it is pretty good, especially compared to stuff like McDonald's or other fast food. They also have amazing customer service and are consistently fast at getting you your food. I'm curious which fast food chains you think taste better, I'd like to give them a try.

To me, its just another fast-food chicken sandwich, I guess. IMHO, the sandwiches from every other major chain, including McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King are pretty similar. Nothing differentiates the Chick-fil-A sandwich from the others, that would cause me to wait in the long, traffic-stopping lines that form at their restaurants at meal times. It really baffles me.

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

#185

Post by asdff »

irrational wrote: post #83
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?

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…

The draw is that it's the only fast food place besides popeyes that can make a decent spicy chicken sandwich for only $4.

The wendy's spicy sandwich costs more while being cafeteria food tier and is barely seasoned. BK and mcdonald's offerings aren't much better. Not sure who else is even in this spicy chicken game, but it is a massive game to get into. There is a reason why popeyes still can't keep their sandwiches from selling out instantly, and howling ray's has an hour wait on a good day. Good spicy chicken sells itself.

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

#186

Post by asdff »

SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #169
sixtypoundhound wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics aside, the food is awesome, fast, and polite. And generally better for you than the major chains... I'm not really sure what MacDonald's actually serves anymore... much less any of the others...

> Politics aside, the food is awesome, fast, and polite. Is it though? I really don't get it. Chick-fil-A's entire menu consists of unremarkable chicken sandwich variations, and unremarkable... everything else. It's just not very good - at least compared to other fast food options. It doesn't stand out to me. I can't figure out why it stands out to so many other people. I think the push-back against them from LGBTQ a…

Name a fast food chain besides popeyes that can pull off a better spicy chicken sandwich. Even chick fil a's isn't heavenly (my preference is for a thai take on the sandwich from a local place albeit 3x the cost), but it is head and shoulders above any other chain in that market.

There is also something powerful about the spicy chicken sandwich in particular. Every brewpub offers some nashville styled whatever cut of chicken these days. Popeyes is still selling out their sandwiches a half year after release. Howling rays is still getting people to wait for over an hour for a chicken sandwich, and crashed the postmates website when trialed delivery for one day a few months ago.

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

#187

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

asdff wrote: post #186
SmirkingRevenge wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Politics aside, the food is awesome, fast, and polite. Is it though? I really don't get it. Chick-fil-A's entire menu consists of unremarkable chicken sandwich variations, and unremarkable... everything else. It's just not very good - at least compared to other fast food options. It doesn't stand out to me. I can't figure out why it stands out to so many other people. I think the push-back against them from LGBTQ a…

Name a fast food chain besides popeyes that can pull off a better spicy chicken sandwich. Even chick fil a's isn't heavenly (my preference is for a thai take on the sandwich from a local place albeit 3x the cost), but it is head and shoulders above any other chain in that market. There is also something powerful about the spicy chicken sandwich in particular. Every brewpub offers some nashville styled whatever cut of…

> Name a fast food chain besides popeyes that can pull off a better spicy chicken sandwich.

shrug... every other chain that offers one? I guess this is all subjective, but I don't taste any quality difference between Chick-fil-A and other fast food chain chicken sandwiches. It seems like hype to me.

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

#188

Post by dave5104 »

maxerickson wrote: post #135
dave5104 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason might be that in the US, there are close to 14,000 McDonald's locations, but only close to 2,400 Chick-Fil-A locations. If you want McDonald's you have almost 6 different locations to consider for every 1 Chick-Fil-A. In other words, the "per store" metric isn't as impressive when you look at the number of stores.

Well, it depends on what your goals are. Maximizing overall revenue (the lots of stores model) isn't necessarily the best strategy.

Yea, it sucks for the franchisees, but seems to be a good deal for the corporate franchiser.

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

#189

Post by asdff »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #145
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.

I did a little experiment at my local mcdonalds last time I got hit with that "ice cream machine is out" nonsense. It happened on a night shift with 1 person at the register and 1 in the back. I showed up the next day with full staff and what do you know, the machine had been fixed in those 12 hours.

Or more likely, the two high schoolers working that night shift did not want to get swamped and behind having to add 2 minutes to every single order in their queue when they have to step away from what they are doing for the rest of the orders and make a shake. Rather than do that and have to be working from behind all night, the shake machine becomes 'broken' for that shift, and there aren't going to be any brown nosing managers working night shift anyway to put their foot down.

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

#190

Post by kekeo »

adaisadais wrote: post #118
aabhay wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And perhaps apostrophes destroy the service culture? (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Arby’s)

Haha you know, I think you are onto something! But the main thing is that most fast food businesses (and businesses in general) are so focused on revenue that their employees and customers suffer. I recently used a self-serve machine at Taco Bell (love the dreadful beef chalupa) and had a poor experience. The machine was too low for my height and unadjustable. Poor design really brings out the worst in the fast food…

Wow. Touchscreen experience brings out the worst in an industry that sells junk food, and relies on not paying taxes and fighting fair wages to stay afloat.

Mmk

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