• lookorex@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I mean, if you don’t mind/know about the bigotry, it’s pretty fuckin good chicken. And their waffle fries are good too. Haven’t eaten there in years and I do miss the food. But it’s still a hard no for me.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        it’s pretty fuckin good chicken.

        But is it “wait a fucking half hour or more in a god damned drive through” good? Fuck no it isn’t.

        • Kepabar@startrek.website
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          6 months ago

          The streamlined menu makes it so the line goes pretty fast.

          Even when it’s around the building it’ll only take 10 min.

          • Duranie@literature.cafe
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            6 months ago

            I’ve only been to CFA a few times, but even with lines wrapped around the building I don’t think I’ve ever waited longer than 10 minutes. Burger King is regularly that long of a wait and I was actually stuck waiting 20 minutes at McDonald’s last week (they asked me to pull up and pretty sure they forgot about me.) I try to plan ahead and not rely so much on fast food, but as much time as I spend in my car driving for work, I’m usually stopping somewhere 1-2x a week.

        • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I’ve never waited more than 16ish min for food, and that is an extremely long wait for them. It is always super fast, so idk where you are pulling this 1 hour long wait time stuff from unless you are talking about their opening weekends for new ones.

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          6 months ago

          They usually have double lanes and are taking orders throughout the line as shown above, the lines always long but seldom slow.

          That said fuck bigot-chicken

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          People turn everything so political. Is it worth waiting 1/2 for it? In my opinion no. I don’t boycott their product. I just don’t understand the obsession with it. It’s a chicken sandwich

              • Osa-Eris-Xero512@kbin.social
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                6 months ago

                Condemning organizations which support hate speech and eroding of civil rights is too ‘political’, we better just not talk about it.

              • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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                6 months ago

                It’s chicken. It isn’t political

                THE COMPANY MADE IT POLITICAL. Is it easier to understand who brought politics into the dinner conversation if it’s in larger letters?

                • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  It’s sound you are making excuses that damage the community. It’s funny you want to seem holier than though when I don’t even eat there. I just don’t do it for political reasons. If I thought the food was good I would eat there because of the way they treat their employees.

              • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                I just looked at your profile, and man I have not seen anyone have such a strong downvote count. I mean, I don’t look at profiles a lot, but still. You’re a politically-edgy little bastard, aren’t you?

              • orphiebaby@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                Why are you arguing when you know you don’t know what they’re talking about, and a quick Google search can verify what they’re saying? Or are you just playing stupid?

                • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  Maybe you are simple but I clearly described that to me it’s chicken. I get with your slacktivism you think you are saving the world but you just look silly to me. While you not buying chicken shows you are stopping whatever imaginary threat you think is real, I don’t buy the chicken because I don’t like it. I can’t prove a negative. When you google, it comes back with nothing recent since CFA stopped donating to certain groups many years ago.

        • Fester@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          If you’re lucky and get it fresh, sure. More likely you’ll get chicken that looks and tastes like it’s been sitting on the counter for 6 hours.

          I used to get their home style wraps once a week as soon as they opened, and they were fucking great. They took them off the menu a few years ago. I can’t find a reason to go there anymore. Anything else I try is disappointing 100% of the time.

      • Sightline
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        6 months ago

        Is the chicken even that good?, no way they don’t come from a CAFO. Stressed out chicken meat taste like water to me.

        • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Idk what the hell everyone else is talking about. Their chicken has always been great. When i get chicken from other fast food places its always hit or miss, and even on their best day, it’s as good as chick fil a on one of their average days. Hell, I’ve never had a dry or overcooked or small portion of chicken from them, and they always pay their workers well.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        It’s isn’t good chicken though. It’s not 2003. Every fast food place has better chicken now.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        I found the food greasy and unsettling, but I live in a large city full of better options. I guess I can get why people in a small town may miss it.

    • braxy29@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      can’t speak for the bigots, but as a non-bigot who buys it for my kids a couple times a year -

      there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. i say this as someone who doesn’t shop at amazon or wally world, but it’s really difficult to avoid every single brand/company with an asshole owner/ceo. additionally, my impression is they are one of the better employers in the area for people who just need a job and lack skills/ability to do something else.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

        the only valid critique in the thread.

        Although I am a bit tired of it amounting to an excuse of not trying to do positive things at all.

        • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          This is exactly what people love using this argument for… It’s a toxic concept that if we can’t make a big enough impact, we shouldn’t even try.

          I think one could correctly argue that this is one of the major things wrong with the world today. If we aren’t willing to fight injustice, how can we expect anything less from the world around us going forward?

          In this case “fighting injustice” just means buying greasy chicken from the place next door. It’s such a pathetically easy thing to do. Better yet, go buy some discount raw chicken and make something cheaper, healthier, and better tasting at home.

          • daltotron@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            In this case “fighting injustice” just means buying greasy chicken from the place next door. It’s such a pathetically easy thing to do. Better yet, go buy some discount raw chicken and make something cheaper, healthier, and better tasting at home.

            It’s kind of proportional to the amount of impact people are making. Not only is the whole “ethical consumption” thing kind of like, oh, yeah, you’re fucked buying anything from anywhere, and working anywhere, because it’s a tangled web, but more than that, I think that most people are going to look at their individual contribution to chick-fil-a of like, ten bucks for a chicken sandwich meal, and think, hey, who gives a shit. And they’re not really wrong, successful boycotts tend to need to be spurned on by some sort of external action. If chick-fil-a was unionizing, and the union said to stop shopping there in the intervening time, you’d see that eat into profit margins a lot, something to that effect.

            Everyone collectively kind of understands that individual agents are too weak to do anything on their own, spontaneously. Worse than that, they’ve internalized it, so it’s kind of turned everyone into stones that can only be shifted by larger, tectonic forces. It’s like voting, everyone (or most people) are conscious of voting strategies, to not “waste their vote”, and it is precisely this which takes away their power to vote. I can’t really fault them for this, though. You just kind of have to face the reality, bide time in your organization in the wings, and then kind of choose your moments, when you’re going to really push back at something.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Ethics are what you make of them. If it doesn’t bother you that this organization directly gives profits to organizations that dehumanize lgbtq+ people, then keep offering them your business.

        In our society our purchasing decisions can absolutely have moral ramifications, and it’s not about the impact we may or may not have. Dan Cathy stood up 11 years ago and said the following on behalf of his restaurant in direct defense of giving money to anti-lgbtq+ groups, including those practicing conversion therapy:

        “we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”

        To clarify further, Dan Cathy himself turned his chain into a symbolic beacon of religious zealotry and biggotry. It’s a symbol to many conservatives and bigots all across this nation. It doesn’t have to be that symbol to you, but to those of us paying attention, we may use a measure of contempt and caution when measuring up those who eat there.

        I find the entire concept of being unable to try to be moral with our purchases positively dripping with intellectual dishonesty. Life isn’t about being 100% moral, it’s about doing our best with what we have. If we can’t avoid a greasy fast food chain for being a symbol of hate, then how will we ever foster true change in this broken world?

      • inverted_deflector@startrek.website
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        6 months ago

        there is no ethical conumption under capitalism

        I get this and understand to the point that I dont judge people too hard for just getting it out of convenience.

        That said I feel like it’s an easy mark to boycott. At it’s best it’s just fast food chicken and the creators have an active hand in anti lgbt and weird religious fundamentalist stuff.

      • explodicle@local106.com
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        6 months ago

        there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

        This applies more for corporations that own unavoidable infrastructure than restaurants with ample alternatives. The former would cost you a lot to forego and interfere with more effective praxis, while the latter costs nothing to support gay rights.

      • LilB0kChoy@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        my impression is they are one of the better employers in the area for people who just need a job and lack skills/ability to do something else.

        We, like you, avoid what companies we can, CFA included, but this is often overlooked. The individual locations (franchises) are not equal to the anti-lgbtq+ corporate leaders and many of the ones here (Midwest) seem at the local level to better align with the community they serve.

        • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          And yet, their profits still go towards anti-lgbtq+ programs and organizations. And they still stand for biggotry, which was Dan Cathy’s intention 11 years ago when he made his dish on behalf of the company.

          • LilB0kChoy@midwest.social
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            6 months ago

            Yeah, and we don’t go there. I’m still able to recognize the nuance. You seem like you have good intentions but are kind of a dick.

      • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        You don’t have to eat fast food AT ALL. You would be more healthy and you would avoid funding awful people.

    • gorlak@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for a few years: Christian Chicken Offset Charity. It would be an app that would notify you “You appear to be patronizng a bigoted establishment, do you wish to make a $1 donation to Charity X to offset?”

      Could work for Hobby Lobby, In ‘n Out, etc, too.

        • gorlak@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I don’t disagree, but:

          • People are weak when it comes to comfort food
          • Having this would create dialog about the problem at hand
          • Propping up a successful charity like this might cause corporate to question its policy, whereas a boycott results in hard to measure fiscal impact.
          • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Dan Cathy has no reason to question his biggotry. The conservatives in the United States made that clear by giving the chain record profits after he gave his speech, and after it came out that the restaurants direct profits were being donated to anti-lgbtq groups, including those that support conversation therapy.

            Heres an excerpt of what he had to say: “we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”

            People like this need to shut up, or go die in a ditch somewhere so the rest of the world can see progress. The people that eat at this chain will always earn my contempt.

      • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        This isn’t how reality works. Offset is basically babble. What actually happens is company A does something actually harmful like poison the environment, pave some wetlands, burn down the forest and plant corn and then your offset goes to pay people with masters degrees to THINK about what they might do about assholes ruining the world.

        On net assholes with masters degrees have houses in the burbs and the fucking damage is still done. If you want to offset harm you actually have to decrease harm not pretend to be offsetting it.

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a36622217/chick-fil-a-owner-donations-against-equality-act/

          Oh, so the CEO uses their personal slush fund, which definitely doesn’t have any connection to the business they own and make money hand-over-fist from, to make the donations to the anti-LGBT organizations instead of making the donations through the company?

          That must make it all okay then!!! /s

          Don’t give these fucking pieces of shit any more of your fucking money, please.

          • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Here here. People shouldn’t support monsters (or their organizations) that dehumanize others for the way they were born.

            Greasy chicken isn’t doing anyone favors before this nasty realization, and there’s simply no excuse for it after. This is the smallest sacrifice any of us can possibly make.

            For anyone still eating there: You’re weak, and you’re supporting cruelty. Do better.

    • Jaderick@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Slim Chicken’s is better (I swear to god if any of you ruin Slim Chickens for me 🗡️)

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      It’s because assholes like the controversy and want to support the company. There was a time, long ago, when CFA legitimately had the only good fast food chicken, but those days are long gone. CFA is mid tier at best, so the only reason people would get in line to eat there these days is to own the libs

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Man, I never missed the food even a single day since I stopped eating there around a decade ago due to the biggotry. It was always really greasy, and it made me feel like shit a half an hour after eating it.

    • moog@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Fr it’s not even that good. People lost their shit about it so I tried it and I was super underwhelmed. So many better options out there.

    • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Especially now that McDonald’s has the same exact thing. They even stole the bag. And are open on Sundays.

      My go-to is rofo though.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      $0.02: I can’t prove it, but I think it comes down to the line itself being a mode of advertisement. You wouldn’t want to eat somewhere unpopular, and a hyper efficient drive-through would give that appearance. To blunt the impact of a deliberately slower drive-through, they put people out front* to greet customers so they don’t feel ignored in line. This in itself is something other chains don’t do and, instead, have to crush the drive-through line fast, just to keep everyone’s blood pressure in check. It’s better “customer service”, but as OP illustrates, places your staff out in the elements.

      Meanwhile the food is bland and factory-assembly-line consistent, with toppings that range from bland to sweet and bland. Perfect for kids and adults that already have enough excitement in their lives. Are powdermilk biscuits on the menu yet?

      (* if this is a corporate-mandated thing, it’s freaking brilliant. A manager can’t realistically pull one of the greeters to handle a kitchen disaster in the moment, since they’re outside. So, service in this regard is hard for management to screw up.)

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      It’s cause.most people have no clue about that and ultimately don’t care. They aren’t engaged and aren’t seeking to be.

      It’s fast, clean and decent enough to Garner a lot of customers.

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      6 months ago

      This is one of the reasons I don’t get food from them or in-N-out. It may be illogical, but they tend to get a plot in a shopping center and take over a huge portion of the parking lot, pushing out customers from other stores in the shopping center. I couldn’t even get into the driveway to go to the grocery store one time because they were mis-managing the queue and had to go across town to the other store.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        There’s a whole ass freeway exit I purposefully avoid for the same reasons. It’s a nightmare getting on and off because of a fucking chicken restaurant.

    • JCreazy@midwest.social
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      6 months ago

      This may be conjecture, but I think that the reason that they’re so busy is because people think that if they don’t eat there then they won’t get into heaven.

    • SlothMama@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The food does taste good, and it’s reasonably healthy for fast food, additionally they pay and typically treat their employees well.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      All the people here talking about boycotting chik-fil-a, yet the “boycott” has been going on for almost five years now and it made literally no difference.

      They’re way more likely to be affected by the right-wing boycott due to the company having a VP of DEI than a bunch of people that never ate there in the first place “boycotting” because of bigotry.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        Oh no, do you cry and piss and moan every time someone validly critiques a business you just want to shop at without having to think about ethical considerations?

        Someone call the fucking waahhhmbulance. So sorry that ethics are so hard for you.

        • bajabound@lemmy.world
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          Nope. I don’t give a shit what their corporate overlords beliefs are. I still go get my chick-n-minis and hash browns like I do every other week because I like the way it tastes.They could be on the brink of bankruptcy from customers taking their dollars elsewhere and it won’t magically change what they believe.

          • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            Man this guy just out here advertising he sucks corporate boot because he can’t be fucked to give a damn about pesky externalities.

            I think we just found a “temporarily embarrassed capitalist.”

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              It’s not sucking corporate boot to just not care about corporate ethics. You summed it up right, he just doesn’t give a damn.

    • Followupquestion@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Try having small children; drive through a can be a lifesaver because you don’t need to unbuckle them, get their winter clothes on, get them into the restaurant, wait in line, order the food to go, then wait for the food, and then reverse the steps to get back into the car. It’s a giant PITA to just get some French fries, chicken tenders, and carrot sticks, let alone the drastically increased exposure to germs associated with a crowded restaurant. You may have heard, there’s a pretty bad wave of Covid, influenza, and RSV right now. Not sharing air with other people is a big part of staying healthy right now.

      • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
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        6 months ago

        You’re assuming to get to a location you need a car, that’s still car-centric design. If your primary argument for drive-throughs relies on the fact that you needed a car to reach the location in the first place then you’re missing the problem.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        They don’t need to be super bundled up just going from the car to the restaurant and back.

        • Followupquestion@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Tell me you live somewhere temperate without telling me where you live. Have you been to much of the US in the winter?

            • Followupquestion@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              You’ve lived in Alaska for multiple winters and you aren’t worried about the problem with exposing small children to extreme cold?

              • Drusas@kbin.social
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                6 months ago

                You should see how the Finnish treat their babies. Things like frostbite and frostnip don’t happen in the few seconds it takes to get from a car to a door. Yes, with small children, those 10 or 20 seconds might turn into 60, but they will be fine.

              • Vampiric_Luma@lemmy.ca
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                6 months ago

                A low temperature in Alaska will affect you MUCH differently than low temperatures in say, BC which is much more humid and cuts into my bones at -1 where in Alaska/Yukon I’ve handled -34 and I’m mostly struggling to breath.

                As long as it’s a quick jaunt into a heated facility, it should be fine with some moderate layers.

                • Drusas@kbin.social
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                  6 months ago

                  These days I live in Washington, not quite as cold as BC but mostly similar. Previously, I have lived in the Northeast of the US and the Northeast of Japan, which are both humid and quite cold and windy in the winter.

                  I know winter.

          • IronicDeadPan@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I agree with you and I live in Florida. I’d rather deal with the drive thru for the same reasons you listed.

            Also, I won’t have to deal with trying to buckle a 2 & 4 year-old out of and back into their car seats, especially when it’s raining and 95*F. The 4 year old has ASD and refuses to be helped into the car so they throw a tantrum in the rain, and the 2 year old loses their mind just because.

            There are things that people who don’t have/want kids can’t understand, and it’s an argument not worth having.

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          I respect your perspective but as a parent, trust me, life is really freaking hard as it is. Making it harder is unconscionable.

          • Franklin@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Not trying to downplay the right to your opinion but I feel like there has to be a better way to allow parents to enjoy options while also not making restaurants hostile to pedestrians

            • Followupquestion@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              I absolutely agree with making more places pedestrian friendly, I just think a drive through makes too much sense to dismiss out of hand. Heck, I’m in favor of walk-up windows to better serve those of us who don’t want to go inside a restaurant even without kids.

              • Franklin@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                I just don’t see how a pedestrian friendly place of business and a drive through can co-exist. Open to being proven wrong but as I see it, anywhere that incorporates a drive thru adds at least 3 areas where traffic intersects with customers in a dangerous manner: at the beginning, around the store and the unavoidable blind spot when leaving.

                Not trying to take away from your ability to enjoy these things I just don’t think they are a good solution to a public place, as with anything car centric.

                • Followupquestion@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  I don’t have images readily available, but there are little shopping centers surrounding parking lots where pedestrians go right from the sidewalks into the various restaurants/shops, if you can imagine a U shape for the shops and the parking lot and vehicular entrances inside the U. It just takes some planning and extra space, and you know, capitalism isn’t a huge fan of “wasted” space that isn’t generating revenue.

          • Drusas@kbin.social
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            6 months ago

            You may have noticed already that I disagree with your reasoning for using a drive-thru, but you are not wrong that they make life easier, and I’m not even saying that you shouldn’t use them. I’m just saying that kids can handle a brief bit of cold.

            As a person who became disabled a few years back, I wish many, many more places would have drive through or order and pick-up without having to get out of your car. It’s a valuable service. I just think it’s over utilized by people who don’t need it, which is bad for the environment and not great for how little exercise people already get (walking from the back of the parking lot is not the end of the world, people).

            The pandemic was kind of a lifesaver for a lot of us. Suddenly delivery options and order for pickup options have become available where we used to have to struggle to go into these places. It’s great. It’s not great for the environment or for most people’s health, but it’s great for those who really need it.

  • JCreazy@midwest.social
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    6 months ago

    I don’t eat chick-fil-A because of reasons but damn when I did they knew how to move lines fast. Also, the food is okay but it isn’t as good as people make it out to me.

    • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I tried it a few times when it came to my area after hearing people rave for years, and I feel the same. It’s good, but that’s it. On par with KFC.

      Popeye’s is way better in my opinion. It’s also cheaper, and the staff tend to be pretty entertaining in an unintentional and chaotic way. It’s the only fast food restaurant where employees are consistently very honest. Like, if they don’t have red beans because somebody fucked them up, I have been told exactly that.

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        6 months ago

        “You get what you get. NEXT!”

        Ngl the raw “you think I give a fuck about this job?” attitude their employees give off is super refreshing compared to the saccharine, focus tested to death, mandatory prompts that pass as conversation at Chic-Fila

      • Knightfox@lemmy.one
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        6 months ago

        I like the customer service and overall quality of the place, I’ve never seen a bad store. I’m not crazy about their chicken (Popeyes is better imo), it’s not the best but you’ll never roll the dice on whether you got what you ordered or if there is a problem. Also, from what I hear, they pay very competitively and take care of their employees (could be wrong).

        I haven’t deliberately eaten there in years (occasionally I’ll have it if it’s catered or if everyone else wants to go), because they have really terrible politics and support things I disagree with.

        Also, the place has a vibe I hate, like preppy kids mixed with a church function. It just feels fake, the smiles, the “my pleasure”, etc. it feels so fake it’s unsettling to me. I like Popeyes because while I have to check my order to make sure it’s ok, the person behind the counter is a normal person not a plastic cutout.

      • inverted_deflector@startrek.website
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        6 months ago

        At it’s best it’s fast food chicken. I’ll never understand the hubub.

        Its closed on sundays(which is fun because they get contracts to operate in airports and throughway rest stops), and the owners have that whole anti gay thing going on.

    • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      It’s too pricey for me even if it existed in my area, I loved the food but it was overcharged

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      The nearest Chick-fil-A to me is always super busy with cars going around the block. I have never seen them take orders from the cars that are waiting in line like this.

    • stankmut@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      People like to compare them, but they have such a different flavor when you order them plain like I do. The Popeyes ones are pickle-brined, so they have a faint taste of pickles with every bite. I can’t stand the flavor personally.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I can’t remember when I last ate a wet diaper. Maybe I should seek a Popeye’s to find out about this new wonder of international cuisine.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          You don’t know what you’re missing. But I prefer the small business wet diaper over the fast food wet diaper. You want your wet diaper wetted by someone who enjoys wetting diapers for the quality.

  • weasel5053@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The in-person order taking is a much worse experience for the customer. Let me look at the damn menu board. It should not take any more time to prepare a meal than it takes for a car to progress from the order board to the window. I don’t see how them getting the order earlier (presumably the purpose of this) is helping in any way.

    If you want chick fil a and value your time, the in store pickup is a much more efficient.

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        I do not want to be a CFA defender, because they really are shitty, but they have the logistics down to a science. The volume they push through a drive through puts other drive throughs to shame. To directly answer your question, the more they know about what orders are coming, the better prepared they can be. If they know the next 5 cars are ordering nuggets, they can put more nuggets and less patties in the deep fry (for example).

        It’s terrible of them to make their employees do this shit in the cold and rain though. Just let the line be inefficient for a little bit, it’s not like the chicken craving cultists are going to leave the line.

        • Bakachu@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Completely agree with this. They operate their drive through lines like a very well-greased machine. It’s extremely efficient and customers obviously have responded well to it. Would hate for CFA to ever militarize, they’d be a well-fed and very well-ordered militia.

          • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            They have a breathtaking modern technical stack at each franchise. They use ai camera tech to measure the “emptiness” of their various pans, which works with historical data and the incoming orders to automatically create store wide alerts about how much and when to add more chicken/etc to be cooked. They pull in tons of sensor data from basically everything in the stores to keep the lines moving, from the tills to door entry sensors to fry baskets, on and on.

            Its all run on a small 3 computer cluster that each of 5000 stores gets that is redundant and self healing, and automatically shares data to corporate/etc.

            For all the bigotry, its a crazy modern buisness.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        Exactly, the kitchen isn’t some quantum superimposed space that can be made bigger to accomodate more sandwiches per hour, it’s not a fucking TARDIS or something. No, you have a max amount per hour, and not a single restaurant in the fucking country cares that there is an upper limit on what they can make. Nope, you, the workers, just need to move faster! Nevermind the limitations of physics, this is fast food and you’re a bad person for not being faster!

        This has gotten even worse with the advent of internet orders. Go to your local Dominos and you may walk in just at the right time to hear the people at the counter losing their minds because five 20-pizza orders came in within seconds of each other, and every single one of those orders is expecting their order in “10-20 mins” because that’s what it said on the website.

        The person whose order came in last is going to be waiting nearly an hour for their pizzas. Whose fault is this? Dominos corporate.

        • mark3748@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          I can tell you’ve never been in a Chick-Fil-A kitchen during lunch rush. That drive through is one of the most efficient in the industry and the BoH logistics are about as good as you can get. Most restaurants do over 200 cars per hour. They have significantly more employees making a much better wage than the industry average allowing them to meet the demand.

          I fucking hate Chick-Fil-A for a lot of reasons, but you can at least be factual about your criticisms. Pizza isn’t even in the same league as other fast food, and is basically irrelevant. Low margin and low volume lead to most pizza places not having enough staff to handle a rush of orders.

          I have the advantage of having worked on the corporate side of a lot of different restaurants, so I have a lot of behind the scenes knowledge. I have nearly 20 years combined experience between Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and now Chick-Fil-A. That’s probably why I don’t eat fast food anymore.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      In-store pickup, lol. The places by me are always so busy that there’s nowhere to park.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Huh? They have staged ordering and pickup. So the pickup is not a bottleneck.

  • greenskye@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    You can see it in the photo, but it’s always bothered me how my local chic fil a built a nice covered spot for their workers to work with heaters and fans for temperature control and then I basically never see the workers actually work there. They all seem to work at the very beginning of the line, never patient enough to just let cars move up to them.

    Why build it that way if you never use it (or aren’t allowed to)??

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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        6 months ago

        And it works. The chikfila by my work I can get in and out of in 5-10 minutes regardless of how busy they are (barring the time when some chose blocks the drive thru exit and the manager has to come out and direct traffic to get the line moving). Compared to BK or McDonald’s who take 20+ minutes if there’s more than like 4 people in front of you. God help you if you try to go inside and theres an old person trying to order on the touch screen things.

        That being said I don’t go to child fil a when the weather is shitty because of the workers being out in it.

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    6 months ago

    As a non American: What are these people doing? Only time I’ve seen fast food personal outside around here is to empty the bins and pick up trash from the parking lot. Otherwise they are inside.

    • BB69@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      They take the orders on iPads 80% instead of having you drive up to the speaker.

      I think they do this to keep the kitchen constantly moving instead of waiting for an order to get finished. Also a personal touch.

      • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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        WTF, really? People around here order using a touchscreen, same as the kiosks inside. If you want you can press a button and talk to someone inside to ask a question. But the UI on the kiosks is pretty good, ordering is easy and it includes all the info you could ever want. I’ve never had a reason to press the assistance button, but I like it’s there.

        Sending actual people to stand in the rain for such a simple task seems very weird to me.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Volume. Cfa are extremely busy. It’d hard to grasp how much chicken they sell.

          The order takes typically walk the line to take all the orders that way they just pull to the window to get their order.

          Some states asked cfa to help with Covid vaccine coordination since they are experts at handling large crowds.

          • OpenStars@discuss.online
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            6 months ago

            For now…

            Also having a human stand outside in the rain for your enjoyment gives you that great feeling that you are superior to them, in terms of deciding which parents you wanted to be born to:-).

            C’mon, you are laughing b/c you know it’s true? Or else you are crying b/c you are an empathetic liberal:-(, which only makes the other side laugh all the harder! (now at you) :-P

            It even says directly in the Bible: “the worker deserves their wages”, oh no wait not that one, um… “treat the poor and oppressed among you as one of your own”, no wait not that one either, how about “whatsoever you do to the least of these, therefore you also do unto me”, ah… well anyway I’m sure it’s there somewhere!

        • aelwero@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Providing jobs is very much in alignment with their professed political beliefs… Spending the kind of money they did on these ridiculous rain suits also is, to a degree. Not speaking for or against it, just sayin that’s the professed beliefs.

          Conservatives don’t like anything that threatens entry level jobs. It’s the basis of their approach to immigration (incorrect logic IMHO) and they apply the same to automation (correct logic, but there’s better answers for that problem).

          The kiosks in our area rarely work, usually because they aren’t plugged in. The kids working there make well over twice the minimum wage though, because there’s a LOT of competition for jobs since COVID (lots of folks jumped on the work from home train), so it’s a good thing. Walmart didn’t replace anyone at all after COVID, they went full self checkout/kiosk. There’s less than half the pre-covid workforce, and I doubt the ones remaining are seeing any of the money Walmart saves on payroll from it. I’m certainly not getting any of those lost wages when I scan my entire grocery cart for them…

        • _number8_@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          ordering on phones / kiosks is far far better in every way - no awkward interactions, you can see the price of everything, take as long as you need, see the ingredients in everything, see what you can modify / at what price, you know you’ve entered it accurately, etc.

          only people against it are technology-reticent boomers whose only joy comes from bossing around underpaid workers. unfortunately we have a lot of those in the US; they also think seeing people being humiliated like this is actually smart business and a blessing unto the workers. and this particular chain heavily caters to those sorts of people

          • Drusas@kbin.social
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            6 months ago

            I don’t like having to use public touchscreens. People are filthy and never wash their hands. I don’t want to touch the same things they do.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          I don’t think you understand the throughput these places are moving lol.

    • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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      The early days of drive in was waiting in your car in the parking lot and wait for a server to come out to you to take your order. Then they return to your car with the food for you to eat in your car in the parking lot. They often had trays that hooked onto your window or trays that would sit in your lap to eat from. This food was diner style food and wasn’t quick to make like fast food today is.

      These styles of restaurants fell out of style when cheap and quick fast food came along. This combined with Americans are usually only interested in the latest things or styles, many of these old style restaurants went under and disappeared into history. The Founder movie covers some of this when the McDonald’s brothers came along.

      The ones that didn’t die like A&W adopted the eat inside model with a drive thru window for pickup abandoning the older model where their waitresses would roller skate out to your car to take your order and deliver food.

      Then there are newer chains like Sonic in the US that have this old style pull up parking and a drive thru with outside seating. This is more of a nostalgia play for consumers and it worked as it was a trip to something that wasn’t around anymore so it was new again.

      I assume this Chick Fil place is doing something similar in this photo or they are just delivering food during the pandemic to people that preordered ahead of time in the rain.

      • Tedrow@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        They are literally taking orders. They don’t deliver your food. Their drive thru ordering is literally hell.

        • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Kind of reminds me of Dutch Bros. Coffee. They have people out in the line for the drive thru with iPad taking orders. By the time you get to the window the orders are ready for pickup.

      • Eylrid@lemmy.world
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        Chick-fil-A has a more or less normal drive through. You drive your car through and get the food at a standard pickup window. The people outside are taking orders on ipads, but not delivering food.

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    I’ve never actually “been” to Chick-Fil-A, not even when I didn’t know about their shitty beliefs. Popeyes was always more convenient and tastes great. Now that I know, I actively avoid CFA.

    I have tasted it when other people bring it in for work or something, and I still don’t get the hype. It’s just ok and definitely not worth waiting in a long line for when there are so many other options.

    Edit: I don’t know if these even exist anymore, but some Popeyes have/had a buffet. If you find one of these glorious chicken establishment unicorns, please take advantage of it. You won’t regret it.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The reason those guys are out there is to make sure there aren’t long lines. I hate the way it is set up but I have to give them credit that they can get people through faster than any other fast food joint around. They make McDonald’s look extremely slow at times.

      • Bob Robertson IX@lemmy.world
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        I agree, even when the line is wrapped around the building the wait rarely is ever that long.

        And I know this is just pissing into the wind in this community, but CFA is amazing in my community. Yes, Popeyes sandwich is better, but the service level is next level at CFA. They pay well, treat their employees great (see photo), and they give back to the community. When the local owners were renovating their stores they went out seeking volunteer opportunities for their employees, them paid their employees for the time they spent volunteering. Plus the employees are just nice… compare that to the Popeyes employees who obviously hate being at work, are understaffed, and underpaid.

        Yes, CFA has issues at the corporate level but on the local level it is an amazing employer and member of the community.

        • Vampiric_Luma@lemmy.ca
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          We have a local gang organization that does charity drives. Even if some of those individuals promoting a good public image weren’t involved, the organization goes as far as trafficking young children. Grew up around it unfortunately. Yet ironically, I have people vehemently defend them as arbiters of good like they’re vigilantes or something because they haven’t seen what radical effects these people are pushing into our world.

          That’s much further on the scale of course, but we can ask the same question still: Is the good that this one meso-group supplies negate the evil that they’re supporting?

          Could all of these wonderful people be working at another facility, providing you with the same quality of service minus the bad moral after-taste? Yes, but only if they’re obligated to work somewhere else. Otherwise, why change when they’re getting so much support from the people they serve?

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Newer shake shacks do the same thing with the double drive through and roving CSAs, but im pretty sure they just cloned chick-fil-a’s process.

  • pifox@pawb.social
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    6 months ago

    I used to work at chick-fil-a. Those things sucked. They were hot and smelled of body oder. It was hard to do anything in them.

    • Blackout@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      You should visit the Popeye’s in Detroit. You place your order, sometimes you get a bag full of food you didn’t order and appreciate the generosity. Other times the staff takes a 30min weed break before they get to serving you. It’s a special place.

    • StraightCodingWolf@pawb.social
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      6 months ago

      Far better than CFA’s. I find Popeye’s chicken sandwich to have far better crisp breading and better meat. CFA can get more orders out than Popeye’s in the same amount of time but quality is better than quantity

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      Take one chicken breast, sliced about an inch thick and then pounded to half that. Marinate the pieces in pickle brine for about a day, then dry, bread, and fry them.

      Just as good as Chik fil a and you don’t have to even leave the house. And one chicken breast can make 5-6 patties

      • stankmut@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I’m pretty sure there chicken is not actually pickle brined. I can’t stand the taste of pickles and I order every sandwich without them. I can’t eat the Popeyes chicken sandwich because I can still taste the pickles they were brined with, but I don’t get a hint of pickles from chickfila’s sandwiches.

          • stankmut@lemmy.world
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            There’s no way Chick-fil-A does it. I got a few bites into the Popeye’s sandwich and then realized they weird, off putting flavor was a pickle brine. I order all chicken sandwiches plain, since I have a really sensitive tongue and can’t stand the taste of pickles. The only time there was a hint of pickle flavor in a Chick-fil-A sandwich is if the person who bagged the sandwich had pickle juice on their gloves when they grabbed the patty.

            I think they just salt brine their chicken and the common misconception that they pickle brine comes from the fact that pickles are a vile vegetable whose juice soaks deep into whatever they touch and most people order them with pickles.