Chick-fil-A employees are the most polite out of all the fast-food establishments I've frequented. The tables are always spotless, and the food is (I'll concede, this is subjective) damn good.
I don't think it's particularly difficult to separate a few bigoted executives from the totality of the company.
I agree. I rarely visit Chick-fil-A, but over the summer I had to go to a conference in NC and a group of us drove down from the Northeast, urban US. We stopped at one of their locations for lunch and there were about 8-10 of us so we had to push some tables together to extend a booth and make enough room for everyone. At around the mid-point of our meal, a middle-aged female employee came to our table, smiled, and asked us if we would like more napkins and if we needed our drinks refilled.
Now, maybe I'm just a cynical Yankee, but I would say that kind of treatment is extremely rare in fast food joints where I'm from. All employees I've ever encountered are well trained, professional, and super-polite (but not in an overbearing way).
They are not just some executives, they're the founding family, and my guess is that the politeness and cleanliness are probably instilled by them as well.
Admittedly subjective, but the few times I've gone to Chickfila, the politeness had a Stepford Wives superficiality to it. "It has been my pleasure to serve you today sir". Who says that?
The hippie/'open your mind' culture has left people feeling if someone doesn't agree with or support all of my lifestyle choices, if they tell me what I'm doing is wrong, they must be a bigot.
