Free Republic

An owner of a Chick-fil-A in North Carolina was fined over $6,000 and required to pay a handful of employees in back wages after the Department of Labor found multiple child labor and minimum wage standards were violated. A report released by the DOL on Monday said the Chick-fil-A location in Hendersonville, N.C., which is owned by Good Name 22:1 LLC, allowed three workers under the age of 18 to operate, load or unload a trash compactor, which resulted in $6,450 in fines. Federal regulations surrounding child labor prohibit employed minors to perform hazardous jobs.

SOUTH CAROLINA — We’ve all heard the joke: If Atlanta-based Chick-Fil-A took over vaccine drive-through sites, we’d all get our shots in no time. Well, that came true this week for one community in South Carolina. When a drive-through vaccination site in Mount Pleasant got backed up, Mayor Will Haynie did the only thing that made sense: he invited a local Chick-Fil-A manager to the site to help expedite the process. The Atlanta chain, after all, has mastered the art of the drive-through. “We asked local Chick-Fil-A manager Jerry Walkowiak for help today after a computer glitch backed up...

In 2014, Chick-Fil-A decided to stop funding the Paul Anderson Youth Home because it was accused of being “anti-LGBT.” But it still had funding commitments with the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both of which are also falsely accused of being “anti-LGBT” because they have biblical policies on marriage and sex outside of marriage. Now that the funding commitment has expired, Chick-Fil-A says it will no longer fund the Salvation Army and FCA, even though the Salvation Army fits within its giving priority of funding organizations that provide housing and food banks, and FCA provides education. Instead,...

I predict that there will be more scrutiny, not less, of the decision made by the Chick-fil-A Foundation. I am sure the company will revise its response. More nuance will surely be forthcoming because of the nationwide backlash. Nuance, however, is what causes you to lose in politics, get defeated in war and get burned at the stake in religion.

If the last 24 hours have proven anything about Chick-fil-A, it's this: It was never about the chicken. For millions of Americans, there was a much deeper significance behind every decision to pull in the parking lot and walk through those doors. It wasn't about the menu. It wasn't even about the service. It was that every time someone ate there, they were making a cultural statement. Chick-fil-A was a business, yes. But it was also a giant rebuttal of everything the bullies stood for. Until it wasn't.

Earlier this week, Chick-fil-A announced that it would cease donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations. And, just days later, the company has backpedaled. LGBTQ groups were rightly skeptical after the fast-food chain announced it would no longer give millions of dollars to organizations such as the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian athletes, instead saying it would focus its donations on “education, homelessness and hunger.” But, after widespread outrage from conservatives who called the end of the donations “tragic” and a betrayal of loyal (presumably anti-LGBTQ) customers, Chick-fil-A has clarified that it still might donate to anti-LGBTQ groups in future. “Our...

There is a lot that Chick-fil-A has done right. Earnings per store or AUV's (average unit volumes) are at the top of the QSR50 at 4.4 million. To put that into perspective the average unit volume of a Subway store is a paltry $422,000... ...3. You own nothing and build no equity. This one is huge. In a typical franchise arrangement after you have spent years working hard and building up a business when it's time to retire or move on you can typically sell that business or pass it on to your family. Successful franchises can be worth millions....

Most of us who were there on that sunny August day will never forget. For everyone else, there's a sign: "Above this plaque is a bullet hole. It marks the heroic action taken by Family Research Council employee Leo Johnson on August 15, 2012." That was the morning Floyd Corkins walked into our lobby and changed FRC forever. He'd bought a gun and learned how to use it. He'd loaded three magazines. In his backpack was a stash of chicken sandwiches that he planned to smear in the faces of staffers he hoped to kill. "They endorse Chick-fil-A," he said....

Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure, Bisnow has learned. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger. “There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos said in an interview with Bisnow. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.” The...

As Chick-fil-A expands globally and into more liberal parts of the U.S., the chicken chain plans to change which charities it donates to after years of bad press and protests from the LGBT community. Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure, Bisnow has learned. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The videos of mind-numbing first bites and long lines, the celebratory memes and fawning reviews: The return of the Popeyes chicken sandwich on Sunday has met with the same social-media frenzy that first greeted it last summer. But embedded in many of the catchy memes and witty messages is not just an affection for spicy seasoning and crisp breading. There’s also a sentiment that Popeyes has struck a special chord for African-Americans and anybody who grew up eating black soul food — specifically, that its celebrated sandwich tastes like something that could have come from a...

Chick-fil-A hatched in Canada today, and Toronto is not all aboard the fried chicken train. The Atlanta-based restaurant chain, best known for its sandwiches served with a side of controversy, is now open at 1 Bloor Street East, Toronto. The premier Toronto location is the first stand-alone outlet outside of the United States… if you don’t count the counter at the Calgary International Airport that opened in 2014, which has since shuttered. The opening was met by a large protest, led by Liberation TO and The 519 and its Army of Lovers, which was organized through Facebook and online over...

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., filed a $9.9 million federal conspiracy lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that the opposition research firm behind the anti-Trump Steele dossier coordinated with another group to file several fraudulent and harassing ethics complaints intended to derail his investigation. The complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia, which named Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability (CfA), said the "smear" tactics kicked into action shortly after Simpson "lied" in his closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017, as well as before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2017. Fusion GPS and...

A very cool thing happened at a Chik-Fil-A yesterday..

Chick-fil-A has whipped past rivals to become the third-largest restaurant chain in the US. The chicken chain's massive growth in 2018 moved itto #3 on the ranking of the largest US restaurant chains with $10.46 billion in Americansystemwide sales, according to Nation's Restaurant News analysis published Monday. McDonald's maintained the No. 1 spot, with $38.52 billion in American system-wide sales. Starbucks held on to second place with $20.49 billion. Chick-fil-A moved up from the No. 7 spot on last year's Nation's Restaurant News' Top 200, passing Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Subway. Chick-fil-A's system-wise sales grew 16.7% in 2018,...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Under intense pressure from their left-leaning constituents to do something about the dangerous, Christian-founded restaurant chain, Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiled legislation Tuesday that would make it a hate crime to eat at Chick-fil-A. The CFAHATE Act Of 2018 would make it a hate crime punishable by federal law to dine at the restaurant or use its drive-thru, with extra punishments for people who post that they’re eating at the restaurant on their social media accounts. The legislation would also impose heftier penalties for anyone who patronizes the extremist hate group’s chicken sandwich establishments during Pride Month....

A Florida Chick-fil-A franchise owner was arrested Wednesday on two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a 15-year-old, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said. Heather Matuszek, 32, was the alleged victim’s youth leader at Clearwater Community Church in Pinellas County in 2014 and 2015 when the incidents allegedly took place, The Tampa Bay Times reported. The alleged victim, who is now 19, told deputies Matuszek touched her inappropriately two times, the report said. She reported the allegations last March. The investigation is ongoing and the sheriff’s office says they believe there could be more victims. The alleged victim also...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed the so-called “Save Chick-fil-A” bill into law, a new provision that supporters say defends the fast-food restaurant and protects religious freedoms. Opponents have argued it discriminates against the LGBT community. Abbott, a Republican, did not hold a public signing ceremony, but he had signaled his support through a tweet a few weeks ago, DallasNews.com reported. On May 20, Abbott tweeted a picture of a Chick-fil-A soft drink in front of a laptop showing a news article with the headline “'Save Chick-fil-A' bill heads to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk” and wrote, “So. What...

Chick-fil-A is vilified by the American left — and particularly the LGBTQ+ community — like few other American companies. The reason is clear: They are honest, biblical Christians in their beliefs and statements, including on marriage being between one man and one woman — because that is what the Bible explicitly says and what all of Christianity and the rest of the world believed through all of history until, literally just a few years ago. But that adherence to biblical norms in today’s America means they must be crushed by the activist LGBTQ+ left that seeks to destroy anyone who...

At the center of the battle over marriage, the popular Christian-owned restaurant chain Chick-fil-A is once again a target of criticism, this time over a $1.65 million donation to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to support summer camps for inner-city Atlanta youth. The LGBTQ blog Outsports called attention to the donation, saying the company’s charitable arm “has been continually criticized for its donations to organizations classified as anti-LGBTQ.” Chick-fil-A Foundation Executive Director Rodney Bullard told Business Insider the foundation has a “much higher calling than any political or cultural war.” “The calling for us is to ensure that we’re relevant...