ruined.

It is official. The Chick-fil-a on Hwy 81 in Anderson has ruined every other Chick-fil-a in the world for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the food–but as far as the experience goes…that is a different story. I sat in the drive thru of the Bush River store tonight waiting on my awesome Thursday night special, and I began to ponder what that heavenly store in Anderson has done to my expectations. Then, to add fuel to the fire, Beau pulled up two cars behind me and we started texting about how slow this particular store is.

It took me back to the old days, when rush hour drive thru would take less time than I waited tonight at 9pm. You would walk in the door and be bombarded by the happiest people in Anderson by far(possibly rivaled by the greeters at Newspring). There was no waiting in line–they would just open another register for you. Ok, that may be an exagerration…. The people working behind the counter were always running at breakneck speed to get your food out piping hot. It was the epitome of a well-oiled machine. And is if that wasn’t enough, who could forget about the impossibly nice British lady that took your order? Sometimes if I got depressed about something I would just go to Chick-fil-a. Problem solved with a simple smile, a British accent and a brownie a-la-mode.

However, although the Bush River store is no Chick-fil-a heaven like Anderson, they have outsmarted people like you and I who may be disappointed in light of better experiences elsewhere. They have created the Thursday night special. When they realized that they might not always have overly nice people, super fast service, or a British lady, they decided that to make up the difference they could offer #1 combos for $2.54 on Thursday nights. They had the brass to bet that doing so would be enough to keep people coming back week after week, no matter how long they have to wait.

They were right.