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Chick-fil-A’s early results from NYC: Booming

Jaimie Cranford, right, takes a photograph with Mariah Reives outside the Chick-fil-A store in New York on the store’s opening day. Cranford, originally from South Carolina, and Reives, originally from North Carolina, currently live in New York. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

Credit: Tina Fineberg

Credit: Tina Fineberg

Jaimie Cranford, right, takes a photograph with Mariah Reives outside the Chick-fil-A store in New York on the store’s opening day. Cranford, originally from South Carolina, and Reives, originally from North Carolina, currently live in New York. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
By Matt Kempner
Oct 15, 2015

Chick-fil-A made its big jump into Manhattan less than two weeks ago and already the company says it has reset a chain-wide record with its first full service restaurant there.

The three-story operation in Manhattan's Garment District easily broke Chick-fil-A records for peak-hour traffic, the company told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lines have often stretched out the restaurant's doors at times since the Oct. 3 opening, which attracted protesters over the CEO's past comments against gay marriage. Still, the company says customer feedback on speed of service have been better than expected.

Chick-fil-A’s pre-launch preparations included tweaking staff training specifically for the Big Apple. My interpretation of it: hospitality on a stopwatch.

ExploreClick here to find out what Chick-fil-A has done differently and how it deals with local expectations about hospitality, in the latest Unofficial Business column on myAJC.com.

About the Author

Matt Kempner is an award-winning journalist who seeks out intriguing twists about people and subjects beyond what the AJC might typically cover. A former columnist and editor, his past assignments have included business investigations, energy, the economy, entrepreneurs, big business, consumer spending, politics, government and the environment.

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