Amid LGBT Protests, First UK Chick-fil-A to Close in Six Months
When their “six-month pilot period” lease expires
Here at LI, we’ve long covered the left’s irrational and intolerant protests of and attempts to shut down / bar the opening of Chick-fil-A restaurants across the nation. The popular restaurant chain recently opened their first restaurant in the UK and now, following protests by LGBT groups, are closing it.
Chick-fil-A asserts that they had mutually agreed to a six-month lease, a lease that the mall has decided against extending. So while the LGBT crowd are crowing, the restaurant itself will remain open until the end of its lease.
The first Chick-fil-A in the United Kingdom announced it would be shutting down in six months, just days after the popular American fast-food chain made its debut in the country, amid pressures from gay rights activists protesting the chain for contributing millions of dollars to anti-LGBTQ groups.
Protestors swarmed The Oracle shopping center on Saturday holding a sign saying “GET THE CHICK OUT Say NO to bigotry and hatred on your High Street.”
The store opened its “pilot” location on Oct. 10 in Reading, which is about an hour and a half drive from London. A mall spokesperson said concerns raised by activists about the chain have made them determine “the right thing to do” is not to extend the restaurant’s lease beyond the “six-month pilot period,” according to reports by BBC.
In a statement on Saturday, Chick-fil-A stated that the new restaurant is experiencing lines of customers and positive feedback on service.
Chick-fil-A also said in a Saturday statement that it only planned to stay in the initial space for a limited time.
“We have been very pleased with the lines since opening Oct. 10 and are grateful for customer response to our food and our approach to customer service,” the company said Saturday, The New York Times reported. “We mutually agreed to a six-month lease with the Oracle Mall in Reading as part of a longer term strategy for us as we look to expand our international presence.”
When the Reading Chick-fil-A opened on October 10, the chain reports that they served “several hundred customers in our first day.” So not everyone in Reading is boycotting the restaurant or opposed to its presence.
As usual, it’s the loudest, best-organized group that succeeds in forcing its own agenda on others, up to and including mischaracterizations about Chick-fil-A and its charitable giving.
The left’s outrage about all things Chick-fil-A even extended to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who committed the cardinal sin of . . . eating lunch from Chick-fil-A. Dorsey was forced by the social media mobs to apologize (for what he chose to eat for lunch. Not kidding.).
Here in the States we countered calls to boycott Chick-fil-A with an enormously successful buycott that had thousands of people across the United States lining up to eat delicious Chick-fil-A meals.
The photos of huge drive-through and walk-in lines were posted all over the internet, including here at LI. Chick-fil-A reported record sales, and oddly, we never heard another peep about boycotting the popular chain.
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The LGBT freaks get away with too much. They need to meet Resistance.
I hope you’re genuine in your request and would be a willing puller on the oars. Because there is such a group resisting the homo lobby, and they can point to some success,
Mass Resistance,
https://www.massresistance.org/
And you know you’re hitting the target when the left, here in the proxy of Wiki, begins its description of your efforts as,
“MassResistance is a fringe group which promotes conservative moral values positions on issues relating to abortion, anti-bullying, and LGBT culture.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MassResistance
More tomoto on the gay BLT please!!!!!!!!!!!!
The LGBT freaks [a minority] certainly don’t have to patronize that establishment. Why ruin it for everybody else? This should turn many people against the LGBT movement.
Its the same old left-right thing. If the right doesn’t like something they don’t buy it or use it; the left tries to deny something they don’t like to everyone. You name it: guns, fur coats, plastic straws… to mention just a few.
How crazy is it to have a six month lease. How much money did they invest in that store that is now lost?
This is just a test.
Leased location, like any shopping mall. At the end if the lease, all the equipment will be sold at auction – or moved to a building they own if sales stay steady. Malls don’t like Chick Fil A. They’re not open on Sundays; malls want 7 day tenants.
Expanding internationally is always a gamble. Local food tastes differ, often a lot.
Maybe a tweak to their name for overseas…….
MeccaChick-fil-A perhaps……
Sure, it’s a leased location… in a FOOD COURT. The mall owns the outfitted kitchen space and nothing will be liquidated. The mall will rent to another tenant, like a fish-n-chips chain or south Asian fast-food joint that won’t make the wrong kind of headlines.
Hadn’t considered that the mall might own the equipment. Makes it even less of an investment.
The GLBTQ movement must destroy anything that doesn’t worship it. Move the franchise to Michigan. We have too few of them.
“And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name”
I’m afraid you may be correct.
Either bow down and worship their image (named “Tolerance”, with the rainbow sign), or be killed. (Daniel Ch. 3; Revelation 13)
This is smart for Chick-fil-A: they will stay in this location for six months, and I’m sure they will have interest about where to relocate that store, from all the people who love them in the first six months.
Good point, Sally. I don’t know a thing (at all, not one thing) about how it works internationally, but here, Chick-fil-A is mostly franchised, so if some intrepid local decides that the market is good, they may decide to set up their own, stand alone delicious chicken outlet in or near the area. If it’s locally-owned and run (granted as a Chick-fil-A franchise), the locals will be more vocal about pushing back against the crazy.
Unlike so many homosexuals – and others – who jump to conclusions based on what they are TOLD, I looked into what the founder said. After having done so, I found no reason to boycott his company.
I’m not at all surprised, Friendly Grizzly. After all, you’re one of “us” and not a leftie loonbot. 🙂
London has more creepy people, the vast majority of which do not seem to have jobs, than NYC and SF put together.
Well, since SF population is under 1 mil, it’s about the same as saying London has more creeps than NYC.
That is true IMO. NYC actually has quite a few decent people, they are just outvoted by the barking moonbat Londoner types.
They never threw anyone of a high roof. Why not protest muslims??????
Please- commercial property owners are falling all over themselves to have a Chik filet in their midst. It’s an anchor. LGbeaty bdamned, the invisible hand speaks louder and longer than any tantrum.
Is the chicken viable? Why are transgender spectrum (LGBT) activists so Pro-Choice, [selectively] exclusive (“=”).
My first reaction: Brits are such wussies, such well-behaved little dhimmis.
My second thought: Or maybe this is just a blast of hot greenhouse gas, and based on ACTUAL SALES REVENUE, the franchise is already making other plans to move to a longer-term, or even permanent location.
PS Wouldn’t it be cool if we could order online from that British franchise location, then pick up the order at a local Chik-Fil-A? Either the online order system is probably not set up for that, or there’s probably some regulatory hurdle that makes it impossible. But just contemplating the sales impact of a massive American buy-cott makes my mouth water! ?????
We have a Chick-Fil-A not to far from where I work. I never eat lunch there.
Not because I don’t like it (I do) or because I’m boycotting them (I’m not).
Not because the service is slow (it’s not) or because the employees aren’t friendly and professional (they are).
It’s because the lines are always, without fail, out the door. The place is always packed at lunch time and I just don’t feel that I have enough time on my lunch break to wait out the crowd.
I guess they’re doing something right.
Volunteer Fireman here – Chick-Fil-A gives a 50% discount to all firefighters – outstanding corporate philosophy and community support. I would literally walk thru flames to support them.
Well anything to annoy a liberal … We literally just had one open here in Wilkes Barre township … First fullserve one with a drive threw … It opened Friday … Lol couldn’t get near the place ….as soon as it looks like I might get through in less than 20 minutes I’ll do my part to flip liberalism the bird