It hurts me to say something bad about Chick-fil-A, but I must. I’m just not a particular fan of the lineup from wherever you are for a store’s grand opening to get free food.

I’ve been at Chick-fil-A grand openings. They are fun (except when you’re trying to get to sleep in a hotel room across the parking lot from the nearly-all-night festivities, which I did when a new store in Durham opened).

I blogged about Chick-fil-A a couple of years ago because chain founder Truett Cathy is a hero of mine, both in his business practices and personal life. As the years go on, he might be my ONLY hero. It is truly (and sadly) hard to find someone you would like to emulate and not be embarassed. I got to spend about 30 minutes talking with him and felt honored.

Having said that …

It’s nice that a new Chick-fil-A standalone store is opening in Belmont Thursday morning. It might be the closest store to I-85 (the one in Gaffney is almost as close). Great location, right down from the only Wal-Mart in the area I will spend money at (a certificate on the wall says it was the Store of the Year in 2008. Good job, folks. And thanks.).

There is a tradition at new Chick-fil-A stores that has followed  to Belmont. The first 100 customers in line through the door at 6 a.m. get a free combo meal each week for a year. Now, watch the local morning “news” shows Thursday morning and you’re likely to see live shots from the parking lot or inside the doors. I can think of only one Charlotte morning show of the four this would be appropriate on. The others will attempt to make it “news.”

It’s 4:43 Wednesday afternoon and a story on the Gazette Web site reflected that at 1:14 p.m. (when the story was posted), the drawing for spots in line has already been held, nearly a day before the fact. Daniel Jackson’s story (welcome back to work, pop) reads that 74 have camped at Chick-il-A events before. There are people who travel the country and go to these grand openings. It’s college students, retirees, anyone at all (I met some of these people at the one I attended in Durham). Do these college students miss classes for free food? The story says some of the campers will donate their free food to youth groups or other charitable organizations. But is that fair to the locals, the residents of Belmont and Mount Holly? Not really. It’s the people of Gaston County who will be  going to this restaurant six days a week … not the people of Florida and other parts of the populace. 

I told someone the other day that I don’t mind spending a little more to eat at Chick-fil-A because I know the quality of the food, the quality of the employees (and it’s always MY pleasure to go there; I like hearing that phrase), and I know where the proceeds are going. My deep Baptist roots come out when I say that spending money at Chick-fil-A is like tithing, in a way. I hope that didn’t come out the wrong way because I mean it reverently. I also felt like I had been to church that morning at the Durham grand opening. Every business should be run like that.

I just wish locals would get first crack at those free meals. That’s all. Welcome to Belmont. And don’t fergit to eat mor chikin.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.