If you have ever waited 20 minutes in line for a chicken sandwich in the Student Center, you may have an idea of how popular the University's Chick-fil-A is.
The campus Chick-fil-A's rank fluctuates between first and second in sales volume among noncompany-owned Chick-fil-A locations in the Southeast, according to Brad Motes, director of retail operations for the Student Center.
The No. 1 rank is occasionally taken by Georgia Southern University's campus location.
"It's a great feeling," Motes said. "You know, as with almost everything we do here on campus, whether it's Auburn or Chartwells or whoever, we like to be on the top of our game, whether it's football or dining services."
Motes said the campus Chick-fil-A generally serves more than 15,000 customers on any given day.
According to Ian Locklar, sophomore in physics and aerospace engineering, other Chick-fil-A locations may offer services that are not found on campus, such as breakfast or ice cream. However, it is likely that the campus location still receives more customers than off-campus locations.
Locklar, a former employee of Chick-fil-A on Magnolia Avenue, said the Magnolia location generally received about 300 customers an hour during rush periods, such as lunch and dinner hours.
Locklar attributed the campus location's superior popularity to its convenience.
"People eat there just about every day," he said. "The main thing is that it's on the meal plan, and it's really easy to get to for people on the Quad. And it's right beside Haley. It's really in the center of campus."
Chick-fil-A on campus is open every day except Sunday and accepts both meal-plan money and traditional forms of payment, which may help explain its high regional ranking.
Motes said it is difficult to determine a solid national ranking for Auburn's Chick-fil-A because so many variables contribute to store ranking. However, he said the Auburn location has been ranked in the top 10 several times.
According to Motes, these rankings apply only to noncompany-owned Chick-fil-A locations; that is, locations that are supplied by the Chick-fil-A corporation, but are privately owned by a different food service company.
Auburn University's Chick-fil-A is owned by Chartwells, which provides all the on-campus food services.
Locklar said he believes company-owned restaurants still exhibit better service.
Regarding the campus Chick-fil-A, Locklar said, "They [Chick-fil-A corporate officials] don't physically go in and do quality checks. This one, it's much more commercialized in that there isn't much customer service, in that it isn't much focused on the customer. It's more focused on getting the food out."
Robby Thomas, freshman in political science, said the efficiency is what he likes about the campus Chick-fil-A.
"It's fast, it's really fast--and it's always really good," he said.
Thomas said he eats there about once a week and has no complaints about the service on campus as opposed to off campus.
"It's all the same," he said. "Everybody's nice. I get my food, I eat it, haven't been poisoned yet, so I'm good."
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