Chick-Fil-A Sales Have Only Doubled Since The LGBT Boycotts Began In 2012
"Can they reach $30 billion?"
Protesters targeted Chick-Fil-A for their alleged homophobe stance - some of the banners accused Chick-Fil-A of being anti gay. Erik McGregor / Contributor / Getty Images

By PAUL BOIS
@PAULBOIS39
September 22, 2019
The Left's most-hated fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A, seems to just keep ramping up the sales no matter how much harassment or protest is thrown its way. Ever since the left-wing boycott crusade against the chicken empire began in 2012, sales have not only increased, they have doubled.

"Chick-fil-A’s annual sales have more than doubled since LGBT and liberal groups began calling for a boycott of the restaurant in 2012, according to a new analysis," reports Christian Headlines. "In 2012, when controversy arose over the CEO’s comments about same-sex marriage, sales totaled $4.6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the year before. In 2018, sales totaled $10.46 billion, making it the third-largest restaurant in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks."

On top of the sales bumps, the chain has added 700 new restaurants in the span of those seven years. Journal & Courier noted that in 2018 alone, Chick-fil-A saw a sales increase more than four times that of Starbucks at 16.7%.

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There are more than 2,400 Chick-fil-A locations nationwide, compared to more than 14,000 Starbucks' and McDonald's locations each.

Start-up costs for an operator for a Chick-fil-A are only $10,000, just 10 percent of the minimum cost for a McDonald's. The average Chick-fil-A location brought in $4.6 million in annual sales in 2018.

Chick-fil-A's digital sales via delivery and carryout are also continuing to grow and the restaurant was found to be teenagers' favorite fast food restaurant, ousting Starbucks in a 2019 survey. While Chick-fil-A does lag considerably behind the coffee shop chain internationally, the company did open it's first Canadian location this year with plans to open another 15 locations in the city.

Kalinowski Equity Research founder Mark Kalinowski told Business Insider that with enough time, Chick-fl-A may well surpass Starbucks. "Can they reach $30 billion? I think that's also a realistic goal if you give them enough time, and that should put them ahead of Starbucks," he said.

Glenn T. Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family, told Christian Headlines that the numbers show Chick-fil-A's enemies are in a small but vocal minority.

"The only ones who seem to have any kind of beef with the wildly popular chicken restaurant are a minivan-size group of squeaky extremists on the far left," said Stanton. "They’ve concluded that Chick-fil-A is bigoted without the slightest bit of evidence – only that their founders believe in natural marriage. Their position sits very well with the rest of us."

"Not only have they doubled their sales in the last few years, but they have won the prize for the fast-food establishment with the highest customer service rating the last four years running," Stanton continued. "Bigoted businesses do not tend to rate well in customer satisfaction. Chick-fil-A was won this vaulted spot because it is their pleasure to serve everyone who comes through their doors and do so with all graciousness."

Despite the high numbers, the leftist enemies of Chick-fil-A have nevertheless persisted, increasingly upping their tactics at every turn by banning restaurants from opening on college campuses and even airports. Residents of Toronto recently took the protests to extreme levels when they showed up at a store's grand opening brandishing angry signs while staging die-ins outside the restaurant.

Northwestern University management professor Brayden King said the boycotts were, however, successful by getting media attention.

"I think the activists would say the boycott against Chick-fil-A is successful even if they didn’t get people who typically go to Chick-fil-A to stop buying Chick-fil-A sandwiches," King told the podcast Freakonomics. "The reason they would say it was successful is because they got the media to pay attention."