By Will Hall, Message Editor
Airports in San Antonio, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, have rejected Chick-fil-A stores as did Rider University in New Jersey.
But, despite these and other political attacks, Chick-fil-A, a faith-based company, is on pace to become the third largest restaurant chain in U.S. sales this year, leapfrogging from seventh place.
A Kalinowski Equity Research report indicates Chick-fil-A sales were up 15.5 percent last year (about $10.4 billion) – a nearly $1 billion increase from 2017, when the chain experienced a sales jump of 14.2 percent.
Chick-fil-A only has 2,100 stores, which are closed on Sundays, but its market strength is demonstrated by remarkable per store sales of $4.1 million each in 2017, beating Macdonald’s, Starbucks’s and Subway’s combined per store take of $4.0 million.
Moreover, despite activists’ efforts to shut down the chain, Chick-fil-A has been named number one in food quality and customer service among fast-food eateries (limited service), but its scores best even the top dine-in restaurant, Texas Roadhouse (full service).
Now, a 2019 survey of 8,000 teens, with an average age of 16.3 years, shows Chick-fil-A is the restaurant of choice among Generation Z, preferred 20 percent more than Starbucks and four-to-one over MacDonald’s.
Regardless, critics continue to attack Chick-fil-A because its foundation provided financial support to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes ($1.5 million), the Salvation Army ($145,000) and the Paul Anderson Youth Home ($132,000) in Georgia – all three had policy statements that promoted the biblical understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Chick-fil-A said the donations were used, respectively, to: “fund sports camps for inner-city youths” conducted by the FCA; pay for “several programs” run by the Salvation Army, including the “Angel Tree program in Atlanta”; and, provide for the daily “operations” and “a Christmas dinner” for the youth home.
