> 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 activists is really pretty silly. Even still, I know many bleeding hearts who are perfectly aligned with such activists and who regularly patronize Chick-fil-A (but jokingly call it "hate-chicken" or something similar) - but they keep going, and keep spending their money there. Why?!?
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.
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.
> 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.
Chic fil a offers actual chicken cuts. The nuggets and tenders are actually ripped pieces of breasts, the sandwiches are actual filets that are seasoned and breaded in the store the day you ordered it.
You go to a wendys or a mcdonalds and order a dozen nuggets, you will see they come in exactly 4 shapes—ground whatever parts of chicken pressed into a mold of one of 4 randomly chosen shapes, breaded and flash frozen at a factory, and flash fried in store. Taste is subjective of course, but the quality of meat difference here is actually pretty objective.
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.
All of the old chains have launched bigger/better/more expensive food options but it's hard to compete since their reputation and existing customer base knows them for a certain price and quality.
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 activists is really pretty silly. Even still, I know many bleeding hearts who are perfectly aligned with such activists and who regularly patronize Chick-fil-A (but jokingly call it "hate-chicken" or something similar) - but they keep going, and keep spending their money there. Why?!?
The food just isn't special or particularly good.