The Mos Eisley Wal-Mart (now with 15% more scum and villainy!) now has a brand-new Chick Fil-A location that they wedged in between a very active Starbucks and the even more active Wal-Mart petrol station with very little tarmac to play with between any of them.
Truth be told, I’ve been to enough of their locations that wasn’t built on a postage stamp like this one whose traffic pattern ended up starting at UTTER DISASTER and getting much worse from there that I was honestly wondering just how much of a Charlie Foxtrot situation this was going to create.
Indeed, the initial visit that has spawned the Chick Fil-Audit series of reviews that kind of took on a life of their own was thanks to the morbid curiosity of spending 37 minutes in a queue that had spilled out onto US-64 Business in Knightdale.
So my initial plan was to stay as far away from this location that’s physically the closest to my house or if I did choose to come near it, I’d have a bucket of popcorn and a huge beverage to park across the street and watch the farce that would be traffic trying desperately to get through and around this location.
I might well still do that one day but my plans of avoiding this new Almighty Temple of the Lord’s BirdTM went out the window when one of the kind dance moms from Katie’s days of dancing in Fuquay-Varina tipped off her Facebook mob that her oldest daughter was making that long journey that I am *SO* familiar with for the next three days to help train up the brand new workers at this location.
Even though Katie hasn’t danced in studio in years, I’ve enjoyed following the adventures of the many dancers she would share the stage with at one point or another as they’re now in high school or have graduated and moved on to college or whatever else they’re of a mind to do.
“Supremely talented” doesn’t really do Miss Savy justice. Whether it was blowing the audience away with her clogging dance routines or rocking good grades whilst also holding down a job at Chick Fil-A, she is just a generally all-round good human being who does very well at whatever she chooses to focus her attention upon. I remember her being especially crafty and she would make these really clever Christmas ornaments or other items which she’d offer up for sale. The work ethic was always strong with her and there’s precious little I could ever imagine ever defeating her. It’s just not in her DNA and she comes by that quite honestly! 🙂
And that is why I rolled up into their car park and decided to check out the inside of the building. Eventually I might do the drive-through and do a proper Chick Fil-Audit on this location but a grand opening tends to be an utterly mad experience at the best of times and not knowing where Miss Savy would be stationed, I figured the lobby was probably the best chance of catching her and saying hello.
That turned out to be the right call as I’m guessing she’d just arrived on site a few minutes before I parked up at 1100 or so because she was standing amongst a group of employees near the ordering stations/tills waiting for what I presumed was one of the managers to show her where she could stow her stuff in a room near the washrooms.
I managed to catch her as she was on her way back to the mass of humanity between the tills and the kitchen (and she had the yellow vest so I figured she was going to be deployed to look after someone working the drive-through).
Miss Savy was kind and gracious enough to a) remember who I was (which is kind of important!) and b) actually confirm that I’ve known her for years as I’m sure that manager was wondering “who in the world is this random guy that’s seriously embarra-blasting poor Miss Savy?!?”
Yeah, it happens. Katie can definitely be the corroborating witness! 😉
I did mention that I was somewhat surprised that this new location didn’t get a package deal because I know her sister Livy also works at the Fuquay-Varina location. Once Miss Savy was done blushing (which like everything else she does was quite professional in terms of hue and duration!), she did suggest that Miss Livy might not have been quite as keen about making that long trip.
I can certainly understand that having driven the reverse routing for YEARS multiple times during the week (but no regrets!). When the new extensions to the 540 ring motorway are done, getting from here to Fuquay will be much faster (and decidedly more expensive because they’re going to be tolled which has been a reasonable sore point with the southern Wake communities who felt the rich people in the north of Wake County get a free ride on the original I-540). But now the only realistic option is US-401 and that just plain sucks at the best of times.
But Miss Savy had some trainees to look after and I needed to bugger off before the lunch crowd turns up so I’m off to the tills where I am next to one of the owners of a location in Cary who had come round to support her new colleague’s opening with a couple of her employees as trainers.
Looking round the lobby and the car park, I don’t think she was alone in that endeavour…there were probably more than a few franchise owners about who were wanting to help out and make the grand opening a success. I’m sure there will be hiccups and some opportunities for “I didn’t know it did *THAT*” but it does speak well of the local operators that they’re willing to do much more than just pay lip service wishing the new person success but taking an active part in it.
That’s somewhat unusual in the franchise world but it really ought not to be. A rising tide truly does lift all ships.
A quick visit with a young gent at the till who did a great job taking the order even being very new to the system and needing some help from his minder and I was off to the side waiting for my customary large double/single and lemonade with no ice.
That’s how you can tell the customers who remember going for the Lord’s Bird decades ago when Chick Fil-A was located only in the mall…translated, that means two sandwiches, large fries, and the lemonade.
You can’t really order it that way anymore because that system was well before the combos came into play and everything was ordered a la carte but back in the day where that was the fastest way to order. I went to the Colonial Mall location in Orlando often enough that I rarely had to even say it…the usual crew behind the tills already had it rung up and ready by the time I’d made it through the queue to order. 🙂
Ordinarily, I’d do a play-by-play with the timings but on a day like this where there were enough people between the tills and the drive-through window and kitchen to make a fire marshal nervous and with a green crew being trained up, it’s not really fair to worry about the timings.
Even so, I had my order much quicker than I’d imagined looking at the chaos in the trading pit.
I’ll have to come back and do a proper run through the drive-through but I’ll let things settle down a bit to give a fair review.
Let’s see how they stacked up!
- Initial greeting: The young gent at the queue looked like he was having a bit of sensory overload but he did a really great job of politely taking the order and he didn’t use the prohibited word at all so full point! 🙂
- Order correctness: spot on for the full point.
- Waffle fries: hot and fresh, just the way they ought to be! Full point!
- Sandwich: Sandwich was nice sized and properly breaded…full point! 🙂
Full marks out of the gate and New Bern Av is off to a good start!
And a happy bonus for being able to say hello to Miss Savy which was truly the only reason I went anywhere near that place! 🙂
Time will tell if they can maintain that good start once the trainers have returned to their home stores and the teeming hordes discover that location is now open for business as it’s not easy to see it from the hill where New Bern Av passes above the roof of the restaurant and it looks like they’re waiting for a sign to be installed at street level.
