Fast food restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A
is famously closed on Sundays, but that didn’t stop them when people
stranded at the Atlanta Airport needed help.
Chick-Fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy was a devout Christian, and his
restaurants are all closed on Sundays, as well as Thanksgiving and
Christmas. Even the company’s website has a different splash page on
Sundays, showing a video message about why they are closed on Sunday.
It all started with a power outage at the
Atlanta Airport, not too far from Chick-Fil-A’s corporate headquarters
in College Park, Georgia. According to WSB-TV Atlanta, the power outage
stranded thousands of passengers in the terminals and left hundreds of
flights sitting on the tarmac, taking hours to deplane all the
passengers. After hours of no
electricity, and hotel rooms and rental cars scarce, Chick-Fil-A stepped
up to help.
The Atlanta city government announced that they were providing shuttle
services from the airport to the convention center for anyone who needed
shelter, and Chick-Fil-A was providing food.
Chick-Fil-A had faced a threatened boycott
several years ago over the company’s support for traditional marriage,
despite the fact that company policy was not to discriminate in hiring
or serving customers, and those supporting a boycott focused their anger
over comments made by the founders and corporate donations, not any
actual acts of discrimination. The boycott failed as Chick-Fil-A
supporters made a point to go to the restaurants, resulting in long
lines at many locations.
In fact, since 2010, Chick-Fil-A has been the top earner among fast food
restaurants in average sales per restaurant, earning an average of $4.8
million per restaurant in 2016 (Whataburger was second at $2.7 million).
This ranking is even more impressive considering that the majority of
their competitors are open seven days a week and Chick-Fil-A is, as
mentioned repeatedly above, closed on Sunday.
So kudos to Chick-Fil-A for looking out for their neighbors stranded at
the airport. As for the rest of us, we’ll continue craving those waffle
fries until our local stores open tomorrow morning.
“I want Chick-Fil-A, but it’s Sunday…I want the fries that are made of
waffle, but now I’m feeling awful…” |
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