How Chick-Fil-A Will Regain Its Position as the Number 1 Fast Food Company

For nine consecutive years, Chick-fil-A has held the top spot in the USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards ranking of the best fast food restaurants in the United States. But this year, it was dethroned by the Mexican-American chain Del Taco.

It’s quite an accomplishment for a chain with fewer than 600 stores in 18 states concentrated in the Southwest (California has nearly 400 stores) and the South; none in the Northeast.

To top it all off, Kentucky Fried Chicken also surpassed Chick-fil-A, taking the number two spot as the most popular fast food restaurant. KFC’s rise is probably less due to the Colonel’s secret recipe, but more due to its ability to offer great prices.

Battered by inflation, Americans aren’t going to fast food like they used to. A LendingTree survey of 2,000 adults found that nearly 80% consider fast food a luxury because of the high prices, and 62% are enjoying it less. Chick-fil-A was cited as the most upscale fast food chain (25%), followed by Starbucks (22%) and Chipotle (21%).

Chick-fil-A isn’t giving up its top spot without a fight, though. The chain is introducing new retail formats to bring speed back to the fast-food experience.

And Deadline just reported that Chick-fil-A is launching a family-friendly streaming service so customers can enjoy the full Chick-fil-A experience at home, even when they’re not enjoying their Chick-fil-A takeout.

New stores to serve better food faster

Compared to other fast food restaurants, Chick-fil-A is known for its fresh, high-quality ingredients and exceptional customer service that is rarely matched at other fast food restaurants.

Despite being closed on Sundays, the chain has posted some pretty impressive financial results. In 2022, Technomic reported that Chick-fil-A became the third-largest U.S. restaurant chain by sales; only McDonald’s and Starbucks are larger.

With nearly 3,000 locations, Chick-fil-A is projected to have revenue of $21.6 billion in 2023, up from $18.8 billion in 2022, according to QSR, which compiles private company data from its franchise disclosure documents.

Its 2,000 stand-alone franchise units generate an average annual sales volume of $9.4 million, up 8% from $8.7 million in 2022. A typical Chick-fil-A restaurant brings in less than half of a McDonald’s unit, which averages about $4 million per unit, according to equity research analyst Mark Kalinowski.

After opening nearly 150 restaurants last year, Chick-fil-A plans to open 183 new restaurants this year and is introducing two new digital-first retail formats: a store with no in-store dining and an expanded drive-thru concept with the kitchen on the second floor. Both new store models are now operational.

The mobile, walk-up pickup location opened in March on New York City’s Upper East Side. With no seating areas or self-serve drink fountains, it’s designed for high-traffic urban areas where time is precious and people are eating on the go.

When a customer places an order on the brand’s mobile app, service staff are alerted via geofencing when the customer is nearby so the order can be scheduled for arrival. An active status board also displays the status of orders.

The new drive-thru location just opened in an Atlanta suburb. It’s a four-lane model that can accommodate 75 cars at a time, solving the recurring traffic problem at its usual locations.

Cars drive around on the ground floor, where waiters personally deliver food orders, with no windows to pass them through. And the food is prepared on the second floor in a kitchen twice the size of the average store. An automated food transport system—a “smart” dumbwaiter—delivers orders to waiters downstairs.

Jonathan Reed, the company’s executive director of design, told Nation’s Restaurant News that the store can handle up to three times the volume of a regular Chick-fil-A and that drive-thru and digital channels account for the majority of Chick-fil-A’s sales.

“We’re a second-by-second business,” Reed said. “People’s time is a commodity. The fact that they show up with their money, that they give us their time, that they give us their hard-earned resources, we never want to take that for granted.”

More innovations are in the pipeline. QSR announced that the company plans to invest $1 billion by 2025 for international expansion in Europe and Asia, with a goal of being present in five international markets by 2030. In addition to the United States, it currently operates stores in Canada and Puerto Rico.

Becoming a cultural force

In some circles, Chick-fil-A is already a cultural force, but it wants to extend its cultural influence further. Company founder S. Truett Cathy’s decision to close his Georgia restaurant on Sundays wasn’t all that unusual in 1946, but the fact that it remains closed today 80 years later truly sets the company apart.

Chick-fil-A has always been a company driven by a purpose that goes against the secular mainstream. “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A,” the website states.

To spread this positive influence beyond its stores, Deadline has just reported that Chick-fil-A is “aggressively moving into the entertainment space” with plans to create family-friendly shows and content, with an initial focus on unscripted series.

She accused Brian Gibson, who produced History and Fox’s Top Gear, The X Factorwith the development of new unscripted content and appears to be looking to acquire other content.

Chick-fil-A has already tested the media waters in a series of educational animated shorts for children called Evergreen Hills Stories and has branched out into children’s puzzles and family games under the Pennycake brand. His next project will follow the same path.

The demand for healthier, more uplifting, and more family-friendly content is on the rise. “Post-pandemic, there’s a growing focus on positive storytelling, which in the streaming age finds a new window of opportunity,” wrote Marc Berman, also a senior contributor at Forbes.com.

It’s a space that another household name, Hallmark Cards, has successfully exploited across three cable networks — Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery and Hallmark Family — as well as a subscription video streaming service, Hallmark Movies Now.

The question is whether Chick-fil-A can do the same or even aspires to do so. Chick-fil-A did not respond to a request for comment. However, the chain has always served its chicken sandwiches with a touch of warmth and friendliness.

It’s not that far from Hallmark turning holiday cards into TV stories. It’s clear that Chick-fil-A is seeing a growing appetite for family-friendly content that needs to be catered to.