Chickfila "reopening guide"

storewanderer
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

Post by storewanderer »

Was over in Sparks tonight during dinner period. All of these fast food places are next to each other.

Popeyes had a dark dining room and a long drive through line that was not moving. "Drive through only." Now hiring at "up to $16/hr." You would think they could staff it for that wage. On Sunday I tried to go to the Reno Popeyes and the place was flat out closed- no staff at all- for the entire day (sign said due to staff shortage).

Habit Burger had a few cars in drive through, signs posted on the entry doors stating shortened hours, and the place didn't look clean at all (and recent Google reviews were awful).

Went to Chickfila. Fully open. Probably had 30 employees on duty. Walked in and a 3rd register was opened for my order to be taken and food was out within about 3 minutes. Not sure how they do it. It is really nice to go to a service business that seems to be operating normally. Or what was the "old normal."
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

Post by Alpha8472 »

I also experienced a horrendous Popeye's experience in Dublin, California where the dining room was closed and the single drive through line was over 35 minutes long with no way to escape. There were people who kept parking in the lot and walking up to the doors only to find that the doors were locked. How much more labor does it take to at least open 1 register inside?

I know that the Chick-fil-A has a long line as well that spills onto the street. However, Chick-fil-A has friendly employees who treat the customers well. The Popeye's restaurant was staffed with unhappy employees who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. If you pay the employees well and treat them well, they will make the customers happier. The service was awful at Popeye's and you just do not want to go back. That is a ton of money that will be lost due to unhappy customers who will never go back. It comes down to greed. If restaurants would pay more and staff their restaurants better, they will increase sales and gain repeat customers. The lines are long at Chick-fil-A, but customers will tolerate it and are happy to go back due to the excellent service.

In N Out Burger also has long lines at the drive-thru, but they also have an open dining room for to go orders. Again, In N Out pays higher wages and the employees are friendly and provide friendly customer service. This is the place you want to patronize on a repeated basis.
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

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I haven't been to In N Out in a long time. It is just too crowded. They will open a new location in Reno soon, I hope that takes some of the heat off of the existing locations because they are just too crowded. One of the biggest issues I've seen with In N Out is they seem to get so many large orders, and those just take a while to get put together.

I find Chickfila even when very crowded moves the orders through quickly. I do think maybe their average order size is smaller. Maybe it is that they do not have as many custom made orders. I'm not sure how but they seem to move long lines much faster than In N Out. They sink a ton of labor into operations to make this happen but they sure do make it happen.

I am not nearly as crazy about Chickfila's food as that of Popeyes, but at least when I go there I have full confidence that I will receive a hot product, prepared correctly, interact with clean and friendly employees, all efficiently. Popeyes, well, lately, half of the times I've tried to go there they haven't even been open. And this is in broad daylight. Other times it is drive through only. Can't win.
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: July 22nd, 2021, 11:43 pm I haven't been to In N Out in a long time. It is just too crowded. They will open a new location in Reno soon, I hope that takes some of the heat off of the existing locations because they are just too crowded. One of the biggest issues I've seen with In N Out is they seem to get so many large orders, and those just take a while to get put together.
I agree that In-N-Out drive through lines are too crowded. However, the food makes up for it.
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: July 22nd, 2021, 11:58 pm
storewanderer wrote: July 22nd, 2021, 11:43 pm I haven't been to In N Out in a long time. It is just too crowded. They will open a new location in Reno soon, I hope that takes some of the heat off of the existing locations because they are just too crowded. One of the biggest issues I've seen with In N Out is they seem to get so many large orders, and those just take a while to get put together.
I agree that In-N-Out drive through lines are too crowded. However, the food makes up for it.
I can make a burger at home that is just as satisfying as In N Out. I like the small patty/thin meat style burger that In N Out offers. That burger is especially easy to prepare at home. Preparing with leaner ground beef like an 85/15 or a 93/7 makes the clean up/grease level also pretty low. When I made it with 80/20, which I did one time and only one time, the grease mess and clean up was noticeably greater.

Based on the time I'd spend at In N Out's line, I can save time making it at home too.

I seem to be pretty challenged trying to replicate a chicken sandwich (I sure tried in April 2020/May 2020) or anything that is deep fried, at home. And that was quite an effort between marinating the chicken, breading it, frying it, and the associated clean up (wait for oil to cool before dumping it into the bottle to throw away, then finally cleaning the pan). That felt like it took a few hours. Probably wasn't quite that long. Best to leave deep fried foods to the experts with better equipment.
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Re: Chickfila "reopening guide"

Post by Alpha8472 »

Sam's Club has Southern Style spicy frozen chicken sandwiches which are quite good. Some say they are just as good as Chick-fil-A. You microwave the bread separately and the chicken tastes very much like Chick-fil-A.
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