Chick-fil-A’s Religious Hypocrisy—Closed on Sundays, Except for Builders, Pavers, and Landscapers

Chick-fil-A, in their February 2009 press release [local mirror], alleges that being closed on Sundays is meant “to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Evidently, this does not extend to contract workers, even though Chick-fil-A could easily stipulate that contract workers must perform work on Monday–Saturday.

At the Daytona Beach Chick-fil-A, I have commonly seen landscapers or paving crews working on Sunday.

A commentator on Reddit states: “Interesting note, while Chick-Fil-A stores are closed on Sunday, they have no problem having construction workers build their stores on Sunday.”

Because Chick-fil-A alleges their closed-on-Sunday policy is religiously based, it is hypocritical that they use Sunday to get all sorts of work done on their restaurants.

Other restaurants that do not close on Sunday must perform such contracted work during business hours or overnight. Chick-fil-A’s supposed “sacrifice” is diminished when we consider they have an entire day to perform contracted work without pesky customers. Further, any moral authority they have with respect to the “Lord’s day” is denuded.

Unlike with Amazon, I do not have a specific reason to pick on Chick-fil-A.

As a young child, I often visited my grandmother and step-grandfather (who passed away in 2003). I would go with them in the mornings to a meetup of seniors who met for friendship and to discuss various issues. After Target in Orange City, FL replaced their cafe with a Starbucks, we would meet at the Orange City Chick-fil-A. In the photo below from Friday, December 31, 2004, I am pictured far right, age 13.

Richard Thripp and friends at Chick-fil-A, 2004-12-31

As long as Chick-fil-A continues to conveniently employ contracted workers on Sundays, they will never have moral authority regarding the Sabbath. Their hypocrisy is on full display when they claim such authority, such as in deceased founder S. Truett Cathy’s claim from their February 2009 press release: “Cathy credits ‘blessings from the Lord’ for the great success the company has enjoyed, and he remains as committed as ever to maintaining the Closed-on-Sunday policy.”

3 thoughts on “Chick-fil-A’s Religious Hypocrisy—Closed on Sundays, Except for Builders, Pavers, and Landscapers

  1. I have seen the landscape crews and pressure washers working on Sundays many times at our local CFA Pensacola, FL). Last Sunday there were cars there but no crews outside. I stopped and peered through the window to see what looked like a training session in progress. Could have been a cleaning crew but there was one person obviously giving instruction while the others were listening.

  2. I noticed landscapers and grounds crews working a few weekends ago driving by a Chick-fil-A on a Sunday, and I couldn’t help but stare at the hypocrisy of their Sunday marketing rhetoric. I wasn’t really surprised but I figured this was a pretty big glaring oversight to the way they market their company.

Leave a Reply to Justin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *