Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A logo
Company type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	1946 (first Dwarf House opened in Hapeville, Georgia) 1967 (first Chick-fil-A opened in Atlanta, Georgia)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Key people	S. Truett Cathy, Founder, President, and (brand) owner
Products	Sandwiches Other food products
Website	www.chick-fil-a.com

Chick-fil-A (IPA pronunciation: [tʃɪkfɪ'leɪ]) is a fast-food restaurant chain headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that specializes in chicken entrees. The second-biggest chicken-based fast-food chain in the United States, Chick-fil-A is best-known for its chicken sandwiches, in both pressure-cooked and fried or grilled versions. It also offers chicken nuggets, chicken wraps, chicken strips, and salads as well as a breakfast menu featuring biscuits optionally filled with chicken, bacon, sausage, and eggs. The chain is associated with the southern United States, but it has in recent years been expanding into the southwest and the midwest. As of July 2006, the chain has over 1,250 locations in 37 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

History

Freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurant located in Austin, Texas

Chick-fil-A has historically been most closely identified with shopping malls: the majority of its locations are in malls. However, in recent years, most of its growth has been in freestanding units with sit-down and drive-through service and as of 2004 the chain has over 460 such units. It also has drive-through-only locations, and has placed its restaurants in universities, hospitals, and airports through licensing agreements.

The chain grew from the Dwarf Grill (later the Dwarf House, a name still used by the chain), a restaurant opened by S. Truett Cathy, who is still the company's chairman, in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville in 1946. This restaurant is located close to the Ford plant, where workers would catch meals between shifts. The first Chick-fil-A opened in an Atlanta mall in 1967. Gaynel Ricketts is his aspiring and creative daughter from which he got all his inspiration to start a chicken restaurant because that is her favorite food. The current slogan, "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich" is based on a true story: at a time when hamburgers dominated fast food menus since the beginning, Cathy was credited with creating and inventing the chicken sandwich, which went on to being Chick-Fil-A's flagship menu item as it was the first chain to serve chicken sandwiches ahead of most other chains.

Chick-fil-A achieved quite a bit of notability in June 2004, when it was publicly announced in a major ad campaign that a new store, opening in Waxahachie, Texas, on July 1, would offer, to the first 100 to enter its doors, coupons for a free combo meal every week for a year. Along with this promotion (which was widely featured on the Internet), the company threw a huge opening day carnival, complete with karaoke, free ice cream, klieg lights, and prize raffles. The "First 100" promotion is now held at the opening of every new Chick-fil-A restaurant, with people camping out for up to several days before the opening to guarantee their place in line. Chick-fil-A openings created quite a fan base even inspiring such websites as Chicken Pack a forum and general meeting place for Chick-fil-A opening fans.

Since 1997, the Atlanta-based company has been the title sponsor of the Peach Bowl, an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta. Beginning in the 2006 season, the Peach Bowl will become the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Chick-fil-A also is a key sponsor of the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conferences of college athletics.

Also, it has given donations to local Christian, Evangelical, Methodist, and Baptist churches and communities.

In 2006, the words EAT MORE FOWL were put on the foul poles of Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, along with the cows with Astros caps hanging from the poles.

EAT MOR CHIKIN and the Chick-fil-A Cows

"EAT MOR CHIKIN" is the chain's most prominent advertising slogan, often seen in advertisements featuring sign-wearing bovines. According to Chick-fil-A's advertising strategies, the cows have united in an effort to reform American food, in an effort to reduce the amount of beef which is eaten. They wish the American public to refrain from eating beef burgers as are common at Chick-fil-A's competitors, such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, and instead focus on eating chicken, or "chikin" as the cows spell it. The ad campaign was temporarily halted during a mad cow disease scare in late 2003/early 2004 so as not to make the chain seem insensitive or appear to be taking advantage of the scare to increase its sales. A few months later, the cows were put up again. The cows replaced the chain's old mascot, Doodles, an anthropomorphized chicken.

Occasionally, in their television commercials, the cows "take matters into their own hooves" and become somewhat combative in their efforts to get people to "EAT MOR CHIKIN." One recent Chick-fil-A commercial featured a cow jumping on top of a passing minivan and stealing the occupants' sack of fast-food burgers, much to the shock of a very young boy (whose parents, seated in the front seat, were completely oblivious). The company's new TV ad for 2006 featured bovines parachuting onto a football field during a college football game, complete with "EAT MOR CHIKIN" banners, and attacking the hamburger vendor, which Chick-fil-A has posted on YouTube (link here).

The advertising campaign is occasionally criticized by customers and media personas. The beef-boycotting bovines utilized since the first billboard in 1994 are actually dairy cows, as evident from their distended udders. The error may be a deliberate one as the dairy cow is far more recognizable by consumers and makes for attractive plush dolls. While the occasional criticism has languished over the course of the campaign, the recent addition of the Chick-fil-A Milkshake has exacerbated the oversight.

Sometimes these billboards incorporate a little bit of local color or local inside jokes. One such example showed up in Knoxville, Tennessee, during 2003. The billboard was located along Interstate 40 in the West Hills neighborhood and featured an orange (instead of white) background with traffic cones and a cow wearing a safety vest. The text on the billboard read, "CHIKIN ZONE NEXT 3000 MILES," an obvious reference to the lengthy and expensive construction projects that have been the bane of Knoxville motorists since the early 1970s.

Another billboard, located along southbound Interstate 75 on the north side of Atlanta, featured a cow dressed as Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind and the text, "Welcome to Atlanta, where it's 'proppa' [meaning "proper"] to eat chikin."

The company also produces annual coupon-bearing "cow calendars" every year, featuring bovines in various parodies that have included "The Cow Channel", "Cow Superheroes", "Secret Agent Cows", and "Cows in Shining Armor". In 2007, the cows will return as "The Good, The Bad, and the Hairy" in a new western-themed calendar.

Chick-fil-A Classic

The Chick-fil-A Classic is a high school basketball tournament held in Columbia, South Carolina. The tournament is in its fifth year of operation and features a number of the best high school boys' basketball programs in the nation. The tournament is co-sponsored by the Greater Columbia Educational Advancement Foundation (GCEAF) and the tournament director is Gary Fulmer. The tournament website is: http://www.chick-fil-aclassic.com/

Dwarf House

The Chick-fil-A Dwarf Houses are a full-service variation of the typical Chick-fil-A restaurant. In addition to the full-service dining area, Dwarf Houses also have the normal fast-food service area as well as a drive-through. The menu at a Dwarf House is similar to the normal menu. However, surprising to many loyal supporters, the menu at a Chick-fil-A Dwarf House contains an option to buy a Steakburger and/or Hamburger.

One notable difference at the Chick-fil-A Dwarf Houses is the novelty "Dwarf-sized" front door that children and some adults can use to enter if they so choose.

The original Dwarf House in Hapeville, Georgia, is open 24 hours a day, and closes at 4:00 AM Sunday morning and re-opens at 6:00 AM on Monday. It is located across the street from the Ford plant that produced the last Ford Taurus, which Truett Cathy bought as a thank you to the Ford plant employees for decades of loyal business..

Truett's Grill

In 1996, the first Truett's Grill was opened in Morrow, Georgia. While separately owned, the restaurant serves a menu similar to the Dwarf House, with a larger breakfast selection. Their slogan is "Three Meals a Day from Chick-fil-A." Like the Dwarf House, they also have a novelty "Dwarf-sized" front door marked as for children and grand-parents to use. Ironically, the door is quite heavy and most children have a hard time opening it.

The second location opened in 2003 in McDonough, Georgia. Both locations have fast food and sit down service, but are more similar to a 1950s style diner.

The McDonough location has become well known for its community involvement, including outside movie nights, firework displays, and a Nugget drop on New Year's Eve.

There is now a new Truett's Grill which opened in 2006 in Griffin, Georgia.

Religious connections

Chick-fil-a founder S. Truett Cathy is a devout Southern Baptist who has taught Sunday School for over 44 years and whose religious beliefs permeate the company to this day. The company's official statement of corporate purpose says that the business exists "to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A." The chain invests heavily in community services (especially for children and teenagers) and scholarships. Cathy's beliefs are also responsible for one of the chain's distinctive features: All Chick-fil-A locations (company-owned and franchised, whether in a mall or freestanding) are closed on Sundays.

Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business. If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work. Through the years, I have never wavered from that position.

— S. Truett Cathy

Several of the religious organizations that Truett Cathy and Chick-fil-A have lent support to include groups such as Focus on the Family. Groups researching financial support of religious groups have noted that Truett Cathy is one of the largest corporate sponsors of politically active religious groups in the US, largely through grants from the Truett Cathy Foundation but occasionally through direct sponsorship as well or through partnership with other foundations that are major corporate sponsors of politically active religious groups.

Chick-fil-A has promoted religious groups via toys and CDs included in children's meals, much as movie studios promote new movies via McDonald's Happy Meal toys. These have ranged from including toys from the Christian television series VeggieTales in children's meals to including "Financial Peace for Kids" children's books by Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey and CDs from the Christian radio program "Adventures in Odyssey", which is produced by Family Radio, as children's meal incentives. The latter show is produced by the radio division of Focus on the Family, and typically heard on Christian radio stations.

Chick-fil-A and Focus on the Family also have a history of cross-promotion. Chick-fil-A has also sponsored meetings by the group "All Pro Dad"; All Pro Dad is a group with affiliations with Focus on the Family via a group called "Family First"; "Family First" promotes a large number of conservative religious causes, including covenant marriage.

Chick-fil-A has also directly sponsored other religious campaigns. One of the groups sponsored by Chick-fil-A is Athletes In Action which is a sports missionary arm of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

Another link between Chick-fil-A and religious groups includes promotion of "National Bible Week". Truett Cathy is the chair of the National Bible Week Committee.

Truett Cathy is also heavily involved in the Winshape Foundation, a non-profit organization which was started in 1984 with its goal to "shape winners" by offering summer camps, retreats, foster care, and other services.

Milestone

Chick-fil-A Inc. reported more than $2 billion in sales for 2006, reaching a new milestone, crediting in part the addition of milkshakes to its menu.

Cultural References

• Ben Folds' autobiographical single, "Army", contains the line "Grew a mustache and a mullet/Got a job at Chick-fil-A".

External links

• Official Chick-fil-A Site
• Truett Cathy Foundation
• Focus on the Family promotes Chick-Fil-A incentives
• DeMoss Group list of clients
• Winshape Foundation
• Chicken Pack First 100 promo fan site
• S. Truett Cathy Official Web Site
• Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans: S. Truett Cathy