On The Road With The Kings Of Chicken
My experience helping open more than 30 Chick-fil-A locations.
In the early 2000s I was told to “Go west, young man.”
Or was it North? Maybe South? In some cases even East.
That was my life as a traveling trainer for the point of sale provider for one of the nation's biggest chicken restaurants.
Known primarily for its mall locations, the company was expanding by opening standalone stores across the country. And for the most part, it was my job to parachute in, train the staff and validate the installation was working, and then jet off to the next location.
I was granted a unique perspective to see behind the scenes at what made it one of the most successful restaurant chains and why sometimes we were treated like rock stars.
A little history first.
You all probably know that the company was started at a mall. It was a brilliant strategy at the time. Built-in foot traffic, a small footprint, lower costs when it came to building maintenance.
But there was a problem. Most malls worked on a sliding pay scale. The more revenue you generated, the more you paid in rent. So, when a restaurant is doing gangbusters at Christmas time, they don't get any break in paying the bills.
Looking at the standalone model, you could add in drive-through business which at the time accounted for nearly 60% of a store’s revenue. It was feasible to do double or triple the sales of a mall store.
Okay with the businessy stuff out of the way, one of the first waves of expansion was to Texas and the DC area.
My first location was in Austin. I don't recall anything special about it, just that I lament the fact that I was not able to make it downtown for any live music. That would change.
I settled into a cadence.
Have a call with the owner to set up scheduling.
Fly in Tuesday morning of the opening week. Start to train staff.
Train Wednesday.
Grand opening on Thursday. Work a split day to ensure the registers sent the data to the back office.
During that Thursday gap I ventured out to the local attractions. I wandered the grass knoll at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. In Plano, I toured the famous South Fork Ranch which was featured in the opening of the show “Dallas.” In Virginia I hit a theme park. Or I would see a movie and maybe even take a nap.
Fly home Friday morning.
Lather rinse repeat.
Training involved me standing in front of the counter with a few dozen people behind the registers while I called out fake orders for them to take. Our touch screens were state-of-the-art. They had pictures of the food on each button. The grilled chicken sandwich had grill marks on it.
It was really difficult to screw things up.
The night shift consisted primarily of teenagers who were surprisingly easier to teach than the adults working the day shift.
I taught the kitchen how to use the production system to read orders.
At first I stayed in my lane, only training or answering questions about the registers.
But after a few openings I started to help out in other areas. During the busy times I would help take and fill orders. I'd help out on drive-thru. I would help expedite food. Refill drinks. Clean the dining room. Answer questions.
After after a while I had them make me a name tag so people wouldn't be afraid to ask me questions.
And, I observed everything.
If you are a fan of the food, I have good news for you. Pretty much everything is made fresh. Yes the chicken came in frozen but was properly thawed. The lemonade is fresh squeezed (I won't even tell you how many scoops of sugar go in a batch). At the time the coleslaw and carrot salad were handmade. Salads and fruit cups were hand-cut and assembled.1
It’s extremely labor-intensive which is reflected in the slightly higher prices than other chains.
If you are a fan of the service, it permeates from the owner down into the staff. Nearly everyone I met was nice. People that weren't, didn't last long in that environment.
They are taught to say, “My pleasure,” instead of “you're welcome” or even worse, “no problem.”
Of course I adopted that phrasing out of sheer habit. It felt nice to say it if I'm honest. However my wife would always tease me when I did.
Many of the openings brought out the top brass and I met the entire family in charge. They were all welcoming, especially the company president. Oftentimes he would bring his trumpet and play the national anthem as part of the opening. He was bright-eyed and always engaging. And he didn't mind me plowing through the tray of chicken nuggets set out for the VIPs.
And that brings me to the best part, the food.
I have written this before and I will say it again. There is nothing on earth like a fresh chicken sandwich out of the brand new fryer with pristine oil.
From the time I walked on site I was constantly being offered food. And I hardly said “no.”
Most of the openings had a “Friends and Family” night where they would open the location to the associates’ families. The food was free, but we used it as an exercise called a “soft open” to make sure that all the systems were ready for the crowds. It was an excellent training practice. You can see where the weak links were and address those for the real opening.
On average they would give away a few thousand dollars of food.
I also had a sneak preview of some of their new items. I opened a location in Richmond where the owner made his own special sauce. This was his second store, so people in the community knew him.
And they were bonkers over the sauce. It was his proprietary blend of barbecue, ranch and some other stuff. He put it in a giant pump bottle on the condiment counter. A lady in the Drive-Thru asked for a medium cup full of it.
I'm pretty sure it later turned out to be renamed Chick-fil-A sauce.
Another time I was in San Antonio where they had breakfast burritos. Of course, it's Texas, they burrito everything. However, these were exceptional. And 3 years later they were on a menu.
And I was there when they piloted the popular breakfast “minis.”
I was in Rockwall, Texas, when I first felt the crush of Chick-fil-A's popularity. The small town was 25 miles outside of Dallas. From my memory the location was pretty close to the highway so it had a potential for big dollars.
I had no idea.
There was already a line when we opened at 10:30 a.m.2
The entire space in between the counter and the dining room was quickly filled with six lines. One for each register.
The line did not go down the entire day. Twelve hours of constant traffic. At that time it was the biggest opening they had on record. Later the ones in California would blow everything away.
Nearly everyone commented about how happy they were to have their own location.
Crowds became a theme. Everywhere from Indiana to Virginia to Pennsylvania, people lined up for that fried goodness.
Living in Atlanta, we have these restaurants nearly on every corner. I never thought it was a big deal until I went somewhere where there was not one.
I opened a location in Downtown Dallas next to SMU. It had the first double drive thru I had seen. The second lane was manned by a toll booth kind of area that was connected to the main store. A conveyor belt ran from the main restaurant up and over a track into the toll booth. I'm told it cost $20,000 at the time.
At the least it was mesmerizing. We also had a lot of fun sending things back and forth to the drive-thru attendant. It wasn't always food.
The openings started to morph into a multiple day affair. I was in Boone, North Carolina when I pulled into the parking lot and a 20 ft inflatable cow was staring at me.
There was a radio station under a tent. Clowns were making balloon animals. It was a full-on festival.
The store ran a promo that the first handful of people in line would receive free chicken for a year. It was actually 52 free combo cards so they could get a meal per week if they wanted.
Let me tell you, people wanted those cards.
Kids slept on the sidewalk in sleeping bags. I'm not sure how they slept with the constant music and festivities.
This bore a striking resemblance to another customer of mine that is famous for making the donuts. A certain light has to be turned on.
I opened a few of their locations, which were always eventful.
Admittedly I had gained an enormous amount of respect for the owners and the company. I knew how valuable a location was. So, I started the process of applying.
Here's how it worked at the time: the company did not sell franchises. They had an owner/operator agreement. I would pay a fee, go through the application process Etc. If approved, I would be assigned a location. You could ask for a specific geographic location, but it wasn't guaranteed.
Then, the company would build your store and take a percentage of the sales. As an owner you were guaranteed at least a moderate salary in case the store did not succeed.
Of course, they did evaluate your religious affiliation.3
I took a round of interviews and had a good feeling. However, I began to think about moving to parts unknown. One of my latest openings was in a small town in North Carolina. Scratch that. It was an exit town.
I drove north from Charlotte and nearly passed it. I happened to see the Walmart, which was shiny and brand new.
If you build retail, they will come.
I pictured myself in a location like this. A small dot on the highway surrounded by chain restaurants. Everything closing up at 9:00 p.m.. Miles from anything cultural.
And that's what I knew it wasn't the right thing for me.
Now I had to go about shedding all those extra pounds and inches from my waistband.
Caveat was that this was the early 2000s and things may have changed.
Breakfast was rarely attempted at a grand opening. It was always best to start with lunch.
I purposely am not going to dive into the background of their religion. It's not mine to judge.