Why does Chick-fil-A avoid the Northeast

[1995hoo]

For a company so many people supposedly hate and boycott, it's amazing that I've never been to a CFA that wasn't packed.  I've been to the Chicopee, MA, location several times since it opened and it's always been overflowing.  The other I go to most is in Naples, FL, and you can barely get near it at peak times.

....

I suspect it's more a case that the boycotters just happen to be noisy about it so they get media coverage, making them seem like a much bigger group than they actually are. When the homosexual "marriage" issue was in the news and people started calling for demonstrations in the stores, I recall there being a day either a few days before or a few days after when people who disagreed with the protestors showed up to make a point of giving Chick-Fil-A some business. The lines were utterly insane to the point where traffic on nearby streets was disrupted due to cars lined up to find parking.

[The Nature Boy]

They're opening an NYC location soon and they have a few scattered throughout the Northeast. This thread could have existed about even Wal-Mart just 20 years ago.

Give it time, they're still expanding.

[PHLBOS]

They're opening an NYC location soon

See Page 2, Reply #36 of this thread; one in NYC just opened last Saturday.

[hbelkins]

Popeye's is just nasty. One opened in Winchester when we lived there. We tried it once. Since neither of us care for spicy or Cajun style food, we never ate there again. And the location didn't stay open too terribly long before it closed.

I consider Chick-Fil-A to be in a category by itself when it comes to fast food. It doesn't really compete with KFC, since KFC serves on-the-bone fried chicken and other items like chicken pot pies. I also don't think it really competes with Zaxby's or Raising Cane's, which are direct competitors, because they mostly have chicken strips. (Although Zaxby's is promoting their grilled chicken salads pretty heavily).

I love CFA. And the waffle fries are a pretty unique offering. Those who won't eat there because the corporate owners believe in the original definition of marriage are missing out on some really good food.

[Brian556]

Quote from roadman 65:

You just cannot take for granted that a store that is usually a dime a dozen in most places, will be scarce to none in some others.  Like CVS and Walgreens compete with each other on street corners everyplace in Florida, but go to Dallas and Plano, and you will not find them, especially along I-635 and US 75.  I needed camera batteries on my last trip through there and noticed that there were none, as usually Walgreens and CVS are the best place for me other than Wal Marts to buy batteries in a pinch.

I live in the Dallas area and I can tell you we have just as many Walgreen's and CVS's as Florida does. They are more commonly located on urban arterials than freeways.

If you want to get a feel for an area, you really have to get off the freeway.

[roadman65]

Quote from roadman 65:

You just cannot take for granted that a store that is usually a dime a dozen in most places, will be scarce to none in some others.  Like CVS and Walgreens compete with each other on street corners everyplace in Florida, but go to Dallas and Plano, and you will not find them, especially along I-635 and US 75.  I needed camera batteries on my last trip through there and noticed that there were none, as usually Walgreens and CVS are the best place for me other than Wal Marts to buy batteries in a pinch.

I live in the Dallas area and I can tell you we have just as many Walgreen's and CVS's as Florida does. They are more commonly located on urban arterials than freeways.

If you want to get a feel for an area, you really have to get off the freeway.

Thanks I will remember that one next time in Texas. 

[Duke87]

*  At the local level, the calls for a boycott often had an antipersuasive effect.  Wichita opened one of its Chick-fil-A outlets at the height of the controversy and did roaring business from counterprotesters.  There are places even in blue states where overtly bigoted businesses can expect to do well.

Not only that, but mildly bad press tends to serve as highly effective free advertising. How many people prior to that controversy breaking had never heard of Chick-fil-A, but now recognize it well? Or never paid it much mind, but now notice it every time they pass one? Probably quite a few. That story has likely helped Chick-fil-A far more than it has hurt them simply because the benefit of it increasing their brand name recognition factor has outweighed any bad blood it has caused. Especially when you consider that people will tend to recognize a name for far longer than they will hold a grudge against it.

As for where they are located, there are a few in the northeast but not too many. The one opening in New York City that everyone's talking about is actually the second NYC location - there has been one in Weinstein Hall at NYU since 2004. A somewhat well kept secret, since it's within a university-owned building and therefore invisible to anyone walking by on the street, but it IS open to the public.

I highly doubt this has much to do with politics, though. Hardees/Carl's Jr only recently opened their first locations in New Jersey and there are none in New York or New England. Jack In The Box used to be fairly common in New York back in the 1970s but they have since pulled out of the northeast entirely and they now only exist in a few select areas east of the Mississippi. Sheetz has yet to expand its reach into New York despite there likely being good demand for it.

As has been said upthread, businesses don't grow from local to national overnight, expansion is always a slow and gradual process. Even aside from that, though, the northeast can be a difficult market for a nationwide chain to profit in for many reasons. The different culture often creates less relative demand for certain types of business (fast food is one of them). High taxes and high land values may make it difficult for a service or retail business to be profitable even if business is good. Generally tight and/or quirky regulations may force businesses to modify their usual way of doing things in order to operate legally. And the relative geographic isolation of New England from the rest of the continental US creates challenges in supply chain management if your primary base of operations is elsewhere.

[jp the roadgeek]

....

Also, in 1988, we were craving a Pizza Hut Pizza while traveling back to New Jersey from Mystic, CT along I-95 when passing through Milford, CT.  Needless to say we got off of 95 and used Route 1 as if one was going to be it would be there, but however we drove all the way to Bridgeport and did not see one along the road that had everything else, but a Pizza Hut.  I am to say that Pizza Hut in that time period avoided settling in Connecticut unless it was just US 1that they kept them off of.  That somewhere else they did have stores located even near US 1 by even a block.

....

I'm pretty sure Pizza Hut operated in at least some parts of Connecticut, though not necessarily everywhere, at around that timeframe. Reason is, in July 1989 I went on a Boy Scout trip up to PEI for the Canadian Jamboree. We drove up from Virginia in two cars, my father (who was the Scoutmaster) driving one and another father driving the other. On the way back, we stopped for the night in Southington, Connecticut, and I distinctly remember we had dinner at a Pizza Hut because my father started a small food fight and we almost got thrown out of the restaurant. (Funny the sorts of things that will cause you to remember having been somewhere, huh?!!!!)

I have not been on that particular segment of I-84 since August 1990, so I have no idea whether the Pizza Hut is still there.

Nope. Closed shortly thereafter.  It's now an Outback Steakhouse.  There is a delivery Pizza Hut down the street.

[english si]

That story has likely helped Chick-fil-A far more than it has hurt them simply because the benefit of it increasing their brand name recognition factor has outweighed any bad blood it has caused.

Plus also it was bad press for supporting a view that a good 20% of the population would vigorously agree with, and probably 40% would share those views. And more since 5 members of the Supreme Court ballsed it up without bothering to make anything sound like rule of law, instead going for the "suck it u bigotz!!!1!!!" approach that not only wouldn't win hearts and minds, but lose some as well (OK the other 4 didn't come up with anything much either).

Surely the prize for the biggest Pharisaical bigot in the whole Chick-fil-A saga was Rahm Emmanuel trying to ban the chain from Chicago because of their views. Not only was it attempting to start a new McCarthyism (only this time against traditionalists) but, hypocritically, it was expressing a view that the Mayor (who ran Obama's campaign) had got the winning Presidential candidate to explicitly say was his view less than 4 years previously. Oh, and what did Rahm do for the gay marriage cause when he was Chief of Staff for the President, with a congress that wasn't hostile. Sod all, that's what. And it's not like Obama and his other staff didn't want it: within weeks of Emmanuel resigning to run for Mayor of Chicago, the White House officially came out in favour.

[J N Winkler]

As for where they are located, there are a few in the northeast but not too many. The one opening in New York City that everyone's talking about is actually the second NYC location - there has been one in Weinstein Hall at NYU since 2004. A somewhat well kept secret, since it's within a university-owned building and therefore invisible to anyone walking by on the street, but it IS open to the public.

One of Wichita's four Chick-fil-A locations is at the student union at Wichita State.  Two others are free-standing units while the fourth is a concession at the airport, reachable only through the security checkpoint.  I have a hard time understanding how they justify claiming one of the food service slots there given that their Sunday closure policy restricts the options for passengers arriving or departing on that day of the week.

Edit:  With the exception of the airport, whose new terminal did not open until earlier this summer, all four locations opened in 2012.  The gay marriage controversy erupted on June 16, 2012, and by the end of that following July, the Wichita Eagle was reporting that petitions had been circulated to shut down Chick-fil-A at its two locations on university campuses in Kansas, the other being at KU in Lawrence.  The one at WSU received about 500 signatures, while the one at KU got 1600, but both outlets are still in business.

[J N Winkler]

I suspect it's more a case that the boycotters just happen to be noisy about it so they get media coverage, making them seem like a much bigger group than they actually are. When the homosexual "marriage" issue was in the news and people started calling for demonstrations in the stores, I recall there being a day either a few days before or a few days after when people who disagreed with the protestors showed up to make a point of giving Chick-Fil-A some business. The lines were utterly insane to the point where traffic on nearby streets was disrupted due to cars lined up to find parking.

The thing is, you don't see the boycotters in the media because they are not there at the Chick-fil-A outlets for the reporters to interview or the TV cameras to shoot.  Plus there are some unwilling customers, e.g. an old high school friend of mine who went to a PTA-like gathering at Chick-fil-A because that was where the other parents had decided to go and she didn't want to make waves and thereby cause trouble for her own children.

[cl94]

As for where they are located, there are a few in the northeast but not too many. The one opening in New York City that everyone's talking about is actually the second NYC location - there has been one in Weinstein Hall at NYU since 2004. A somewhat well kept secret, since it's within a university-owned building and therefore invisible to anyone walking by on the street, but it IS open to the public.

One of Wichita's four Chick-fil-A locations is at the student union at Wichita State.  Two others are free-standing units while the fourth is a concession at the airport, reachable only through the security checkpoint.  I have a hard time understanding how they justify claiming one of the food service slots there given that their Sunday closure policy restricts the options for passengers arriving or departing on that day of the week.

Some of those are open on Sundays. They have at least one mall location in Columbus that is open on Sundays.

[briantroutman]

I love CFA. And the waffle fries are a pretty unique offering. Those who won't eat there because the corporate owners believe in the original definition of marriage are missing out on some really good food.

I'm a vegetarian and still like to go to Chick-fil-A occasionally just for an order of waffle fries and honey mustard. I don't agree with the company's stance on gay marriage, but I'm more concerned by the "silence all who disagree"  mentality that seems prevalent today.

[jeffandnicole]

I wouldn't be surprised if most of those that protest things people said that they don't agree with would also be protesting when they feel their first amendment rights are being suffocated.

The one at WSU received about 500 signatures, while the one at KU got 1600, but both outlets are still in business.

Mainly because these are very small numbers, and chances are the majority of the signers never visited the restaurant anyway.  Considering many people will sign a petition that's in front of them (or facebooked to them) regardless of what it says, I don't think Chick-fil-a was very worried.

[Pete from Boston]

I wouldn't be surprised if most of those that protest things people said that they don't agree with would also be protesting when they feel their first amendment rights are being suffocated.

I should hope so. Dissenting with the statements of others requires those First Amendment protections. They go hand-in-hand.

[english si]

I should hope so. Dissenting with the statements of others requires those First Amendment protections. They go hand-in-hand.

Absolutely - but there's a difference between an opposition to someone's view expressed through a boycott of a company, and opposition to someone's view expressed through trying to get the company banned in an area.

[roadman65]

I love CFA. And the waffle fries are a pretty unique offering. Those who won't eat there because the corporate owners believe in the original definition of marriage are missing out on some really good food.

I'm a vegetarian and still like to go to Chick-fil-A occasionally just for an order of waffle fries and honey mustard. I don't agree with the company's stance on gay marriage, but I'm more concerned by the "silence all who disagree"  mentality that seems prevalent today.

People do have the right to their opinion.  To me personally I think people who are going through the trouble of avoiding Chick Fil A are just making more work for themselves.  Now I am not saying they are wrong, just that they are making a little more work for themselves.  Just like those who still boycott Citgo for a statement made by Chavez several years ago, were also doing the same.

Now that maybe a personal choice too that should be respected in which I do, but if the president of a company, any company, publicly states that they are for something I am against politically, I would not boycott his products or services.  That is just me! 

I believe strongly in the blue laws that used to be, however you will not see me trying to get a campaign launched against lawmakers to get those re-implemented.

Back on the subject, there maybe some that do not go in or anywhere near a Chick Fil A because of the latest controversy, but to me (at least the one by my house) it seems like they are making out real well despite the nationwide boycotts.  I personally think that Chick Fil A is way overpriced which is why they do not interest me in eating at.  I think I only ate at them twice in my life.

[cl94]

I avoid Chick-fil-A based on the opinions of the owners, but it's not like I changed my buying patterns. I didn't eat at Chick-fil-A anyway. Give me McDonald's or something.

I typically get gas based on price and franchise, regardless of brand. If I don't like a franchise, I won't buy there. Simple as that.

[jeffandnicole]

I avoid Chick-fil-A based on the opinions of the owners, but it's not like I changed my buying patterns. I didn't eat at Chick-fil-A anyway.

And this is probably the main reason why Chick-fil-a never really suffered...and if anything, received a substantial boost in sales.   Most people weren't boycotting the place; they were just finding another reason not to go there.  It's like me boycotting Iran, or farming tractors.

[PHLBOS]

Some of those are open on Sundays. They have at least one mall location in Columbus that is open on Sundays.

Really?  Such seems to contradict CFA's overall corporate policy of not opening any CFAs on Sundays; including ones located in shopping malls and airport terminals/concourses where all other stores are typically open on Sundays.  I'm curious to know how the Columbus, Ohio area pulled such off. 

From my own observations, the ones in the North Shore Mall (Peabody, MA), Granite Run Mall (Lima, PA prior to the whole mall closing), the Gallery Mall (Philadelphia, prior to the mall's entire food court closing down) and at Philadelphia International Airport (Terminal B/C Marketplace) aren't/weren't open on Sundays.

[roadman65]

I heard that even franchises are not even open on Sundays especially Mall food courts.

Anyway,  Jeff is right as  I am sure you have some that purposely eat at Chick Fil A because of their views as well.  Some may eat the other 6 days just because they believe in Sunday's off as well.

[1995hoo]

I know the Chick-Fil-A location at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax isn't open on Sundays because I've walked past it en route to the barber shop and found it closed; they also have a sign up explaining why. Every time I've seen a Chick-Fil-A logo on a blue sign on the highway, it has "CLOSED SUNDAYS" beneath it so that motorists unfamiliar with the policy won't waste time exiting the highway only to find a closed restaurant.

Out of curiosity I just looked to see on what dates the Peach Bowl has been played since Chick-Fil-A started sponsoring it in 1997. I was curious whether it's ever been played on a Sunday. It has not, although I suppose it's also fair to recognize that most of the major college bowl games avoid Sundays so as not to compete with the NFL for viewers' attention, so I don't know whether the sponsorship deal requires the bowl organizers to avoid Sunday or whether they do it for the more common reason. The only college sports issue I know of with avoiding Sundays for religious reasons is BYU's refusal to allow its teams to play on Sunday (the NCAA works with them on that by scheduling them in Thursday/Saturday brackets when they qualify for the NCAA basketball tournament, though I wonder what would happen if the BYU women ever made it to the Final Four since the semifinals are played on Sunday).

[J N Winkler]

Some of those are open on Sundays. They have at least one mall location in Columbus that is open on Sundays.

I checked and the concession at the Wichita airport is not one of them--it is open Monday-Saturday only.  It appears that the airport concession managers get around the Sunday closure problem by having another restaurant, a locally based microbrewery chain (River City Brewing), that is open on Saturdays and Sundays only.

The one at WSU received about 500 signatures, while the one at KU got 1600, but both outlets are still in business.

Mainly because these are very small numbers, and chances are the majority of the signers never visited the restaurant anyway.  Considering many people will sign a petition that's in front of them (or facebooked to them) regardless of what it says, I don't think Chick-fil-a was very worried.

Another factor is that getting Chick-fil-A out of either place would have entailed action on the part of university administrators, who are typically very old hands at defusing student protests.  Student protesters' attention spans tend to be limited because there is always some new cause turning up on the horizon and students typically do not have the life experience to realize that successful advocacy requires sustained attention to a single issue.

Chick-fil-A corporate made things easier by promising to stop the giving to anti-gay causes and by mouthing the standard rhetoric about diversity and inclusion.  Make no mistake:  senior management has not undergone a change of heart, but is now donating to the same kinds of groups in ways that are more difficult to discover and document.

And this is probably the main reason why Chick-fil-a never really suffered...and if anything, received a substantial boost in sales.   Most people weren't boycotting the place; they were just finding another reason not to go there.  It's like me boycotting Iran, or farming tractors.

Chicken restaurants do not receive many cents on my eating-out dollar in general, since I prefer Middle Eastern eateries for the standard dishes (such as shawarma and fattoush salad) that are light, high in vegetables and meat, and low in refined carbohydrates.  I am happy to stick with Popeye's or KFC rather than try to explain to my LGBT friends why I am funding a restaurant chain whose management believes in their continued civil disability.

[empirestate]

Are Chick-fil-A employees allowed to marry the ketchup?


iPhone

[jeffandnicole]

If there is one successful way for restaurants to lose business, it's by killing your customers. 

(Hi, Chi-Chi's!)

In an ironic way, this isn't true for all lines of business.  Amusement parks are very good at weathering deaths.  And skydiving companies.  :-)