How Chick-fil-A became the center of American culture wars and conquered the country over the last decade

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How Chick-fil-A became the center of American culture wars and conquered the country over the last decade
Chick-fil-A

Hollis Johnson

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If you want to understand the last decade of fast food, you need to understand Chick-fil-A.

If you want to understand the last decade, you need to understand Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A started the decade as a regional chain, beloved in the South, but unknown to much of the US - much less the world. It closed out 2009 with $3.2 billion in system sales.

By the end of 2018, it had more than tripled that figure, with $10.5 billion in system sales, making it the third-largest restaurant chain in the US according to trade publication Nation's Restaurant News.

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Chick fil A systemwide salesYutong Yuan/Business Insider

Chick-fil-A had an incredible decade.

Chick-fil-A set itself apart from the competition with a unique franchising system, in which operators only control a single location. Franchisees undergo a stringent selection process, with a 0.15% acceptance rate, believed to be the lowest in the industry. It is a model that encourages hands-on efforts from Chick-fil-A loyalists, an idea that is increasingly at odds with an industry where fewer franchisees are controlling more and more locations.

The franchise system and the chain's strict operation policies have helped Chick-fil-A earn top marks on cleanliness and customer service. Business Insider readers said that Chick-fil-A has the best food, cleanest bathrooms, and best customer service when we asked them about their favorite fast-food chains earlier this year.

These distinguishing features mean that the average Chick-fil-A far exceeds fast-food rivals' sales on a per-location basis. The average Chick-fil-A location brought in $4.6 million in 2018, according to Nation's Restaurant News. For comparison, the average KFC brought in $1.1 million.

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Chick fil a average unit volume

Yutong Yuan/Business Insider

Chick-fil-A locations beat out the competition in terms of sales.

The cultural impact of Chick-fil-A

Beyond financials, Chick-fil-A is the defining chain of the decade because of its loaded symbolic position over the last ten years of social and cultural debate.

In 2012, Chick-fil-A's then-president and heir apparent Dan Cathy spoke out against same-sex marriage, saying in an interview on "The Ken Coleman Show": "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than You as to what constitutes a marriage.'"

Chick-fil-A had already been under pressure from LGBTQ activists to stop donating to certain Christian and right-wing groups that opposed same-sex marriage. With Cathy's statements, pressure turned into full-fledged backlash, with activists holding kiss ins at Chick-fil-A locations.

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Conservatives rallied around the chain, with Mike Huckabee declaring August 1 to be "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day." The polarized reaction highlighted the cultural divides that emerged and deepened over the last decade, as cultural battles broke out and increasingly defined the political debate.

Chick-fil-A said in 2012 it would cut most of its controversial donations and Cathy has not spoken out on same-sex marriage since. Despite changes, as Chick-fil-A expanded, the company continued to face backlash due to donations to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army.

Backlash failed to impact sales, as seen by Chick-fil-A's massive growth since 2012. However, in November, Chick-fil-A announced it would not longer donate to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or the Salvation Army.

"We made multiyear commitments to both organizations, and we fulfilled those obligations in 2018. Moving forward you will see that the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support the three specific initiatives of homelessness, hunger and education," the representative said in a statement to Business Insider at the time.

Executives told Business Insider before the announcement that Chick-fil-A wants to focus on chicken, despite politicians' use of the chain as a political symbol.

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"We are a restaurant company that's focused on influence, really great food, really great service," Chick-fil-A's vice president of external communications Carrie Kurlander told Business Insider in May. "That's the conversation that we believe we should be in."

Read the inside story of how Chick-fil-A took over America here.

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