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

thehustle.co

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

#201
post #195
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a spot in SF where two Starbucks are about a 30 second walk apart, depending on your luck with the walk sign. https://www.google.com/maps/search/starbucks/@37.7843267,-12... They're so close that I've switched locations depending on the length of the line. Sometimes both are packed though.

Sounds familiar except for the walking part; as a rule we don't walk much in Houston because the city is not designed for it and it's also sauna levels of hot and humid much of the year.

https://www.chron.com/business/article/One-on-corner-there-a...

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

#202
post #90

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Fried chicken sandwiches are somehow healthy?

People believe that red meat is awful, unethical and destroying the planet. It’s sort of like how folks won’t eat pork.

It goes in cycles. Remember only a few years ago when eggs were an epidemic, killing Americans daily.

Dietary science really was awful, and probably still is comparatively weak. I think it's getting better though; I'm pretty convinced that sugars are bad.

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

#203

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…

I'd argue that for a fast food chicken sandwich (especially the "spicy deluxe" variant), theirs is pretty good, but these are matters of taste.

If I go to a CFA, I can count on the food being a certain, consistent quality. I have eaten a lot of CFA over the years, and I've had a low-quality piece of chicken (e.g. tough, full of gristle, etc.) maybe once. Compare this with "chicken" served at milkshake and burger fast food joints, which is mostly made from parts and not whole meat. I've gotten violently ill from KFC before and have since desisted from buying their food, and my local Popeyes has such bad service that no one goes - I think DoorDash is singlehandedly keeping them in business. Even Bojangles in the South or Hardee's/Carl's Jr. have given me real clunkers of sandwiches and chicken before. Chick-fil-A is consistently good quality in comparison. When I'm done with a meal at CFA, I never feel like I'm going to spend the next few hours wondering I need to begin praying to the porcelain gods.

The other killer feature is the service and efficiency. I don't hesitate to get in a long CFA line, because I know it will clear soon. This is another aspect of consistency that is just underrated. If I get in a long line at, say, McDonald's, it may clear one 5 mins or 30. With CFA, I know it'll very likely be done in 10 mins.

The third really big differentiating factor for me is that when you get something you expect to be fresh from CFA, it is consistently fresh. I have not experienced wilting lettuce, "gelling" tomatoes or carrots that have been left too long at CFA. At any other fast food joint, that is a regular experience, even the ones that are too posh to have a drive-thru. Their fresh fruit is the same thing - consistently high quality and tasty. Same goes for lemonade and iced tea (theirs really is the best in the business; and for those not from the South, you can always ask for diet or unsweetened versions of fresh drinks). My son actually gets upset at me when I accidentally get him a side of waffle fries from CFA rather than the fruit cup, since the quality is so good.

The last part is that they seem to really treat their employees well. CFA tends to start their employees at higher wages than almost any other fast food chain, and they give them extensive training in how to operate the store and treat customers. I've heard employees - both Christian and not - say that having a guaranteed day off once a week is wonderful. The restaurants are clean and the workers seem to take pride in doing good work. It's just a good atmosphere. It seems like the kind of job that gives low-skill people the actual skills they need to be productive citizens and employees when they're looking for something beyond food service.

If I were to put it all in statistical terms, along almost any measure dimension, CFA has an above-average mean and extremely low variance. Other fast food places have optimized certain dimensions like this as well: McDonald's for example has extremely consistent - and mediocre - quality and a very consistent low price point. None of them match the breadth of consistency as well as CFA does.

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

#204
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chick-Fil-A's in the SE (or at least NC) are also packed to the brim whenever it is close to a meal time. Although they don't serve the best food in the world the customer service is excellent, the food is pretty good for fast food and it is consistent in matter which location you go to, and you can get your food much faster than other places despite the massive crowds.

The one at Park Rd Shopping Center in Charlotte is going to be rebuilt as a drive-thru only location at the (rather firm, supposedly) request of the city because it's such a traffic nightmare. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/152719/chick-fil-a-woodlawn-...

Honestly, the obnoxious lines at this location and others around the city are one of the reasons I really hate the chain. It's typical fast food garbage - lines spilling out into the street for that crap is just so stupid.

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

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you go to McDonalds or Carl's Jr, there's a big difference between a $1 and $5 burger. Chick-fil-a doesn't have that bottom tier and starts at higher prices with the associated quality. So yea, you can get similar food at the existing chains but it's just not their focus.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 believe I was asking why we hadn't replaced a janky part. I was told the price of the part and expressed incredulity. Grown up me still doesn't understand why the equipment costs that much, except that it's small production runs and captive audience.

There are high demands on reliability: the equipment is expected to run 10-24 hours a day for years, without harming the operator or leaking oil onto customer's food.

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

#207

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.

Couldn’t be more true. What a world we live in :)

The snark seems un-called for.

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

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On the contrary, it's merely one of the defining features of the caricature used in bad-faith attacks on the over-general "social justice left". In reality, the conflation is rare, but high profile when it happens (as expected).

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

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My family recently watched the entire boxed set of 'Quantuum Leap'. The series was consistently, unapologetically progressive. (It had pro-abortion episode, sympathetic gay characters, etc.) One Christmas episode had an evil rich guy who was trying to close down....... the local Salvation Army building. It is simply amazing how intolerant some people are. Yesterday's progressives are today's horrible bigots in the ey…

This connection seems negligently tenuous. Does an organization having a great public image automatically eliminate the possibility of it doing bad things for all future time?

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

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 f…

> They threatened to close in NYC if they had to support gay partner's benefits in the city. FYI, while true as a historical matter (this was done in 2010 according to a google search), I believe this is outdated. https://www.wsj.com/articles/progressives-ambush-the-salvati... notes in 2019: ‘Yet the organization says it doesn’t consider sexual orientation in hiring and now provides “the same benefits to opposite-sex…

You mean we shouldn't discriminate whilst complaining about an organisation who discriminates? Sheesh.
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