Audrey Livingstone
For years, Chick-fil-A has been one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the United States — especially in the South. It was formerly an exclusively southern fast food chain but has recently begun expanding into the West Coast and has experienced great success there as well. Part of Chick-fil-A’s general appeal is its uniqueness. It sells only chicken, is a Christian-based company (and as such, remains closed on Sundays), and is open about its affiliation with certain political/religious associations, which has recently brought the chain as a whole into the media’s bright and critical spotlight. But how did Chick-fil-A become the corporate giant it is today? Where and how did it begin? Who began it? How has it grown? How has it affected the community? What obstacles has it encountered?
The corporation has very humble beginnings. Truett Cathy, its founder, was born on March 4, 1921 in Eatonton, Georgia. Three years later, his family moved to the city of Atlanta. As a young boy, and into his teen years, Cathy displayed his business savvy and entrepreneurial potential through a series of activities and jobs. He ran small drink stands, sold magazines, and worked for the town’s newspaper company, selling subscriptions to The Atlanta Journal. Soon after, following his high school graduation, he was drafted into the army, where he worked until his discharge in ’45.
Almost immediately following his return home, Cathy and his brother Ben opened their own restaurant in ’46. The Dwarf Grill, later named The Dwarf House, opened its first location at 461 South Central Avenue in Hapesville, Georgia. Unfortunately, Ben died in a tragic plane accident two years after the restaurant’s opening; Cathy continued the business himself. A couple of years later, he married Jeannette McNeil, who was extremely supportive of his work in the restaurant business and encouraged him to continue in it. So all Chick-fil-A lovers should be extremely thankful that this woman came into his life, because it was at The Dwarf House that Cathy began experimenting with what is now Chick-fil-A’s most famous meal item: the delectable, mouth-watering, boneless chicken fillet Chick-fil-A sandwich. However, The Dwarf House’s beginnings were very humble — the first day, sales were less than $60.
The experience Cathy gained at his first restaurant set the tone for the current operation of Chick-fil-A. For example, The Dwarf House was only open six days a week — Monday through Saturday. This does point to his religious background, but he says that he “never intended to make a big issue out of being closed on Sunday.” He also focused on word of mouth for business rather than excessive advertising. As business began to grow, Cathy opened the restaurant’s second location in Forest Park. Not long after the opening, however, a fire destroyed it, forcing Cathy to make a rather important decision. In ’97, he said, “I faced some tough questions. Do I take a giant step back to just one restaurant, which would mean having to lay off employees? Do I incur more debt and rebuild the restaurant as it was? Or is it time for something new? I was convinced it was time for something new.” And so the ideology of the fast food chain of Chick-fil-A was born.
After a mildly unsuccessful opening of his first fast food restaurant, Cathy decided to return to his first restaurant idea. He began to work more diligently with the idea of the chicken sandwich at this time. He started serving fried chicken breasts on buns and progressively perfected the frying and seasoning processes. He also made the addition of the pickle to the sandwich, which remains a Chick-fil-A staple to date. As they began to outsell burgers, Cathy gave these chicken sandwiches an official name: the Chick-fil-A sandwich.
Before Chick-fil-A became a chain, Cathy made the decision to sell his sandwich at other restaurants. But because he soon became nervous that another restaurant would steal his idea and use it as its own, he formed the restaurant chain in ’67. The first Chick-fil-A chain store opened in the Greenbrier Mall in Atlanta and was massively successful, because it was one of the first restaurants to establish itself inside of a mall. It was a sort of revolutionary idea at the time, bringing food to shoppers. And so, as malls began to grow in popularity, so did Chick-fil-A. The end of 1967 saw seven restaurants throughout Georgia and the Carolinas. Cathy developed four major aspects of the company’s business philosophy at this point:
(1) the company would grow not by selling franchises, but by forming joint ventures with independent operators
(2) they would operate exclusively out of shopping malls
(3) financing would come not through debt, but primarily from the company’s own profits
(4) people would be the primary focus of Chick-fil-A.
These have all remained core ideas, save the second, because restaurants became extremely popular in shopping malls after several years, and Cathy wanted to expand. The first tenet, concerning individual operators, is what is most unique among them all. When a new franchise is created, Chick-fil-A searches for an individual operator to run that specific location. This operator only has to invest $5,000 of his or her own money into the franchise, which is quite a small sum compared to the total cost of building and advertising it. Said operator is then trained for six weeks, during which time period he or she is paid, and is then guaranteed an annual salary of $30,000, in addition to gaining half of the franchise’s net profit after fifteen percent is given over to the corporation.
As if this wasn’t enough incentive to work for Chick-fil-A, there’s more. There is an annual business meeting for which all operators (and their spouses) are flown to a certain location for one week — all expenses are paid. Even just working as an employee, or a Team Member, has many perks, the biggest of which are having Sundays off and being eligible for a $1,000 scholarship for working twenty-hour work weeks as a student.
Though Chick-Fil-A experienced explosive growth throughout the ’70s, 1982 was a difficult year for the corporation. Due to economic issues, Cathy decided not to take his salary that year. He wanted instead to have enough money to give all of the chain’s team members their paychecks without lowering their wages. After calling a meeting of the restaurant’s board members, they soon created a purpose statement, which reads, “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us; To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” All of the board members were and are Christians and seek to incorporate their religious beliefs into their everyday lives, including decisions regarding Chick-fil-A.
While this religious dedication is admirable and appreciated by Christians all around the states, it has also caused a few publicity problems for the company. Most recently in 2012, an interview surfaced in which Chick-fil-A revealed it supported a company against gay marriage. The store, and Dan Cathy (Truett Cathy’s son and current head of the corporation), were both immediately thrown into the spotlight for their monetary donations to such companies. Though Chick-fil-A was pounded by the media, it also received much support from its more conservative customers. In fact, on August 1st, massive quantities of its supporters turned up to show they still backed the company and all it stood for.
Even though the controversy has only recently come into the spotlight, the interview that caused it actually took place in 2009, and WinShape, a charitable branch of Chick-fil-A who did all of the donating, gave over $1.7 million to different anti-gay marriage groups in 2009. These groups include Marriage & Legacy Fund, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Christian Foundation, Focus on the Family, Eagle Forum, Exodus International, and Family Research Council. In 2010, it donated over $2 million to the above-mentioned groups and more. Chick-fil-A has never been shy about its religious foundation, but due to all of the recent commotion, there are rumors it will stop donating to anti-gay marriage groups.
One of the company’s real estate directors said, “The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.” In addition to this, sexual orientation was included in their anti-discrimination clause quite recently. With all of this, Chick-fil-A hopes to restore its good standing regarding the media.
All of this being said, Chick-fil-A is certainly not only one of the best tasting fast food restaurants around but also a company which holds a lot of integrity and uses sound, Biblical values as its foundation. Through the years, Truett and Dan Cathy handled all of the obstacles that came their way — the burning down of the restaurant, economic difficulties concerning the growth of the franchise, political troubles — in a graceful manner true to the religious values they claim to possess. So don’t worry about getting obese for eating Chick-fil-A all the time — grab some of their delicious noms and just consider it your Christian duty!
Web Sites Researched
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-popular-fast-food-restaurants-in-america-2012-7?op=1
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Company/Bio-Page/Truett
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Company/Highlights-Fact-Sheets
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/chick-fil-a-inc-history/
http://www.ticketcity.com/bowl-game-tickets/chick-fil-a-bowl-tickets/chick-fil-a-bowl-history.html
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