Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day took place yesterday. Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) called for it last week. Today he said that it succeeded “beyond anything I could have imagined.” Thousands of photographs, and a few personal testimonials, show that he was right.

Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day: magnitude

The Chick-fil-A company will not publish any figures on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. They never share sales figures with anyone who does not “need to know.” But they did answer the press they got after current CEO Dan Cathy said that he supports traditional marriage.

From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

Anyone could have predicted how Dan Cathy would have answered a straight question he got from a Christian magazine. The founding family uses the Bible as their compass. Not many companies work without borrowing money, for example.

But even Chick-fil-A’s franchise operators did not foresee the success of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Reports came in from all over the USA; here are two examples. Typical of what people could see “on the ground”:

• Minor traffic jams formed in front of many stand-alone Chick-fil-A restaurants. Drive-through customers formed lines that looped twice around the buildings and then spilled out onto the roadways. Some lines looped around the block! Joe Kovacs at WND took photos at one.
• Walk-in customers often waited an hour and a half, or more than two hours, even to order. They then might wait another half hour for their food. Mercifully, the staff don’t seem to have mixed up any orders, or at least no more than might be usual.
• Some restaurants ran out of the most popular items. Thankfully, customers seemed to accept that with grace.
• Various sources who took part in Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day described the ambiance to CNAV as like a family reunion, or a church picnic, or a Tea Party rally.
• Business at other fast-food joints fell off sharply. In what looked like desperation, competitors put up messages to support Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

Love and Marriage. Photo: Jim Hammer, CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic License

Kevin Glass, at Townhall.com, published several galleries of photos. And customers in Greater Boston delivered a sharp rebuke to Mayor Tom Menino. He and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel publicly told Chick-fil-A to stay clear of their city’s limits when siting outlets or franchises. That provoked Governor Huckabee to announce Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Needless to say, Huckabee feels that the turnout vindicated him. But more than that: Greater Boston residents took part in Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day at least as strongly as did residents of other communities.

Counter-protest

Those who insist that same-sex roommates who share bed deserve the title of “marriage” from the State will have their own event at Chick-fil-A outlets tomorrow.

Related:

Chick-fil-A: Eat mor chikin’

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