{"id":28822,"date":"2014-05-16T01:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=28822"},"modified":"2016-11-25T22:55:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T01:55:18","slug":"chick-fil-a-beats-kfc-again-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/16\/chick-fil-a-beats-kfc-again-but-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Chick-fil-A Beats KFC Again, But Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chick-fil-A bested KFC as the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/chick-fil-a-takes-kfcs-chicken-crown-even-with-fewer-stores-and-closing-on-sundays-so-workers-can-attend-church-117224\/\">leader in the US chicken fast-food industry<\/a>,&#8221; though KFC has more stores open more often. (Chick-fil-A is famously closed on Sunday.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Chick-fil-A reportedly had 1,775 locations and pulled in $5.05 billion in sales last year, according to Technomic. KFC had 4,438 stores that pulled in $4.22 billion in U.S. sales.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As to why they&#8217;re closed on Sunday &#8212; something often attributed to religion &#8212; its &#8220;as much practical as spiritual:&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Our founder, Truett Cathy&#8230;believes <!--more-->that all franchised Chick-fil-A operators and their restaurant employees should have an opportunity to rest, spend time with family and friends, and worship if they choose to do so. That&#8217;s why all Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed on Sundays. It&#8217;s part of our recipe for success.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So how is it that Chick-fil-A is so successful?<\/p>\n<p>One primary ingredient is obviously the food, which is largely unique in the industry (though KFC has apparently <a href=\"http:\/\/adage.com\/article\/news\/yum-targets-chick-fil-a-chicken-concept-store-texas\/292519\/\">created a Chick-fil-A knock-off<\/a>). Another is its famous hospitality &#8212; once put on display when a hostile drive through customer&#8217;s YouTube rant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/vante-cfo-bullies-chick-fil-a-worker-then-promptly-gets-fired-for-it-2012-8\">backfired and got <em>him<\/em> fired<\/a>, while the employee remained courteous throughout.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Stanley at the Christian Post says Chick-fil-A is successful <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/chick-fil-a-once-again-topples-kfc-as-nations-top-chicken-choice-is-it-a-god-thing-117253\/\">because it is blessed by God<\/a>. Recalling the controversy over statements about homosexuality from Chick-fil-A executive Dan Cathy:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I believe God blesses those who are most faithful to Him&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>How did Chick-fil-A operators respond when a handful of homosexual protesters would show up to picket a store? They would offer them free food and drinks. I believe Jesus would have done the same.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Each of those may contribute to the reasons for Chick-fil-A&#8217;s success.<\/p>\n<p>A final thought is one that is non-commercial and, quite frankly, non-religious. Americans tend to value and respect those who act with principle. Given Chick-fil-A&#8217;s following, the restaurant could probably make a fortune off after-church lunches if it was open on Sunday &#8212; but the company has held onto that principle. Similarly, criticisms of Dan Cathy&#8217;s statements about homosexuality didn&#8217;t result in Cathy or the company reversing its position, firing anyone, or otherwise acquiescing to the criticism &#8212; which included Mayors talking of banning Chick-fil-A from their towns. The result was a <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/24\/chick-fil-a-on-being-a-missionary-in-the-workplace\/\">nationwide Chick-fil-A day<\/a> instigated by Mike Huckabee that led to a one day sales record for the company.<\/p>\n<p>People respect those who hold onto their principles, even in the face of temptation or public pressure to surrender.<\/p>\n<p>Do the right thing, and have the moral courage to stand when faced with opposition.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s something that applies in the fast food industry, the military, and life.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chick-fil-A bested KFC as the &#8220;leader in the US chicken fast-food industry,&#8221; though KFC has more stores open more often. (Chick-fil-A is famously closed on Sunday.) Chick-fil-A reportedly had 1,775 locations and pulled in $5.05 billion in sales last year, according to Technomic. KFC had 4,438 stores that pulled in $4.22 billion in U.S. sales. As to why they&#8217;re closed [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[3422,4751,3421,442,4750,267,4753,17,171,4752],"class_list":["post-28822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-chick-fil-a","tag-closed-on-sunday","tag-dan-cathy","tag-homosexual","tag-kfc","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-paul-stanley","tag-religious-expression","tag-religious-freedom","tag-truett-cathy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}