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.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY