Nugget Love

I'm gonna come out and say it loud and proud: I support Chick-Fil-A. As a business, for their right to exercise "philosophy" as they see fit (as long as they follow legal and ethical standards) and for their generous donations to a lot of people and organizations in our country.

However, I was disturbed today by two things: 1) all the posts on FB, etc about the "reversal" of position on organizations CFA supports/doesn't, and the whole "internal memo" discussion, and 2) the behavior I witnessed by a manager at one of my local CFA stores.

It was about 4:30 today, and I needed a snack since I'd only had half a bagel with cheese and avocado about 10:30, so I stopped at this particular Chick-Fil-A; it's one I've gone to over the years, and it's always been typically consistent (ie, busy, nice staff, great product). Nuggets and a diet Lemonade sounded perfect.

There were only four of us in line/at the register at the time - three young, black, dreadlocked guys and me. One of the guys totally smelled like pot. They all had kind of an awkward time ordering. Assumptions (reasonably made, I think) aside, I found the manager's behavior to be . . . over-eager. A tad too inquiring and, actually, patronizing. Repeated questions to the guys - "Was that a Chick-Fil-A sauce you wanted, or honey mustard?" and "Did you want a small lemonade or a medium?," etc - and then to me, "Ma'am, if you'll step over here, Allyce will be with you shortly" - duh, there were only four of us there, so I assumed she'd get to me in just a minute. The weird thing was - it wasn't like he was being racist or sexist or anything - except overcompensating - as if there had been some CFA manager conference call this morning and everyone was told to cow-tow to whomever came in the door and take it to the mattresses, so to speak.

Again, I fully support Chick-Fil-A as a business. But they need to make their business practices about what they've always been about- great food and superb service - and not listen to the "noise" out there, and serve people of every color, creed, gender-orientation, etc with equanimity and aplomb. I think that's possible- I think that's the kind of organization CFA really is. We shall see how they decide to (continue to) do business . . .

Yours,
Love Bites,
Carrie Neal

Ahh, love me some Chick-Fil-A nuggets!