Chick-fil-A: Starting to Slip?

Is Chickfila service starting to slip? The Roswell location on Holcomb Bridge at 120 is always swamped on Saturday’s. Oftentimes they’ll have an employee taking orders by hand to move things along quicker. Coworker Rodney had an extra-long wait two straight mornings this week at the Duluth location on Peachtree Industrial (but they’re always busy then, and at lunch.

Yesterday I had a longer than usual wait for my one CFA sandwich at the east Roswell/south Johns Creek store on Holcomb Bridge near Nesbitt Ferry (aka Rivermont Square), even though there were plenty of employees and it wasn’t that busy. I think there was a big order ahead of me that my guy was trying to fill. Other employees were busy filling the long line of drive thru orders. One girl was at the front, waiting to take the next order. At least three of us were waiting on our orders. A husky assistant manager came through, saying goodbye to the busy employees. Got my sandwich and headed to my car. On my way out I passed the assistant manager headed to his Ford 150, with shirttail untucked. An overall uncharacteristically below average experience.

Still, Chickfila’s service is head and shoulders better than most other fast food places. The less than excellent service is usually due to the influx of customers. Most of the time Chickfila’s are on top of these things. I hate to bad mouth them, considering all the good they do in the community. Besides, the liberal media is constantly taking cheap shots at the company. The funniest story was the one that rated Burger King’s smaller / frozen / processed chicken sandwich as superior to Chickfila’s larger / fresher / cheaper sandwich.

The rebuilt RaceTrac on Peachtree Industrial is filled with employees every morning, as is the Jimmy Carter RaceTrac exactly 1-1/2 miles away. Both places are quite busy, mostly with construction and lawncare workers grabbing ice, water, drinks, food, and gasoline. In the evening the stores are much less busy.

http://thehinkleys.blogspot.com/2013/09/why-is-chick-fil-drive-thru-so-weird.html

Matthew cooked dinner Monday night, so I drove straight home from work. Hand breaded chicken nuggets, fried rice, and tossed salad. Real good. When I was cleaning up I found five more uncooked nuggets in the batter so I popped them in the oven to cook. M ran to Whole Foods to get something for Ceil. I hit golf balls. C watched The Voice, then I watched the Braves.

Monday night I didn’t sleep well, so Tuesday night after dinner (spaghetti) I went in the living room at 8 pm and napped for over an hour. C watched Great News and the finale of The Voice, so I didn’t miss anything. Packaged three bobbleheads to ship. Slept better last night but I’m still yawning this morning.

Woke up right when the heavy rain was hitting. Also high winds. Not much later Barney gave me the look. Lately we’ve been letting him out the back door by himself and he does his business and comes back. Last night he came running back in, and kept shaking off the water. He stayed wet for a long time. Later he acted like he wanted to go back outside. I knew what that was about so I put on his leash. We went out into the garage. He looked at the rain and turned around to go back inside. Smart dog.

With all the rain the creek behind our house is really raging. In the dark you can hear it flow. Still a ways away from flooding over the east bank into the woods (we’re on the opposite west bank, up a hill out of danger.

Wednesday morning my fortune cookie read “Tomorrow you will find the item you have been searching for.” I better figure out what it is I’m looking for. A great job? Great deal on a car? World peace?

Something came up right before I was going to leave work Wednesday, so I stayed a little later than usual. Ceil was arranging flowers for the wedding she is working this weekend, so she drug in after me.

Got home and took Barney outside on his leash. Went in the back yard. Usually he likes to go around to the far side, but for some reason he looked into the woods and didn’t want to go any further. Strange – he never does that. Then he led me onto the deck to the back door. As usual, I snapped off the leash before I opened the door. But the back door was still locked, so I grabbed his collar to lead him back around to the garage. I thought he wanted to go inside, so I let go of his leash.

As we came around the side of the house Barney saw the lady two doors down mowing the grass, so he dashed off to see her. The lady’s back was to us, so it surprised her when Barney showed up. I smiled and waved, then just as quickly Barney started running back toward me. He ran past and did his business in the woods behind our house, in another of his favorite spots. It was near the crest of the hill leading down to the creek, that was still swelled from the rain. Barney didn’t need to go down there. But when he finished he was ready to go inside. Crisis averted.

Slow evening after that. M came home from work, excited about an opportunity to move into food prep at Whole Foods. Perhaps his first step to becoming a chef. He and friend Frank had finally finished recording their album, a task they’d working on for several months. Their band is playing at the Georgia Tech Student Center again soon.

Thursday night Ceil attended a graduation ceremony. I made several stops on the way home: QT to get air in my tires. Chickfila for a sandwich. Kroger for gas. Dollar Tree for an air gauge. Watched Seinfeld, Last Man Standing, and The Middle. Went to bed at 10 pm.

Thursday I avoided the bagels that were brought in to the office. This morning we have cat-head biscuits from Martins. Very good.