Well, it finally happened. Chick-fil-A has arrived in Washington and Justin and I were
there in Bellevue when the first store opened for business. Actually, we were there for the entire
24 hours before the doors opened for
business.
We arrived at the store approximately 5:20am on the day before
opening.
At 6am there were about 120 people in line hoping to earn a
years worth of Chick-fil-A meals by participating in the grand openings First
100 event. Since there were more
than the allowed 100, we were all lined up and issued tickets for the lottery
drawing. As they issued tickets
they checked ID’s to make sure you lived within the specified zip code range (a
recent change to the program).
Anytime someone was disqualified or realized they couldn’t leave the
property for 24 hours our chances of being selected increased. Our anticipation was high as they
started drawing winning numbers.
This is a picture Justin took from his place in line waiting
for his ticket to be called.
Thankfully, I was #11 so I didn’t have to wait too
long. Justin was still waiting for
his number to be called when I came back outside after filling out
paperwork.
Justin was lucky #62.
It ended up that everyone that was there at 6am was able to be included
in the First 100 after all. It
started to rain just as we started to set up our tent. Thankfully, it didn’t rain long and
everything dried pretty quickly.
We were thrilled when they announced they would be feeding
us breakfast. Anytime there was a
role call or free food we had to line up by number, which meant I was always one
of the first to eat and got to eat before Justin. My first Chick-fil-A breakfast biscuit – so yum!
Justin enjoyed his shortly afterward
It’s well known that Justin is a HUGE fan of
Chick-fil-A. He’s has contacted
Chick-fil-A headquarters more than once over the last 14 years encouraging them
to expand into the Northwest.
Justin says he could eat Chick-fil-A every day of his life and still not
tire of it. He’s even interviewed
to become a franchise operator.
The guy loves Chick-fil-A! What we didn’t expect was that Justin isn’t the only mega-fan. I know it sounds silly, but it was so
fun to get to know other people just as excited about chicken as we were.
We had no idea how much fun we’d have during that 24 hours
in the parking lot - Chick-fil-A knows how to throw a party! And the folks from Atlanta were some of
the nicest and most genuine people. Loved all the southern hospitality. I think it will be something Justin and I always look back
on as one of the funnest things we ever did. There were lots of fun games, music, and food – oh, the
food!
For lunch we actually got to go inside and order – though we
only had one choice. I enjoyed my
first ever Chick-fil-A chicken strips meal.
Lined up to go inside the restaurant for lunch
By the time lunch was over the sun was shining and it was actually
warm enough to take off our jackets for a few hours.
We played some fun games throughout the day.
Justin and I both ordered a #1 for dinner – three meals in a
row and still lovin’ every bite!
Before bed we walked through drive-through (by number of
course) and received a cookie and cup of milk. One of the best cookies of my life – no joke!
We really had the perfect spot for our tent
Here are a couple better pictures off the store facebook
page:
The low that night was in the 30’s – not the warmest of
evenings to be camping out, but I actually slept really well. They woke us up at 5:15am and we lined
up to get our prize.
I must point out that it is my thick winter coat that is
making me look 5 times larger – not the fact that I’d been eating fried chicken
for 24-hours. :)
Here’s Justin’s video of walking into the store to receive his prize…
After that we packed up and I dropped Justin off at work with a
big bag full of chicken biscuits for his co-workers and I headed home with a
small bag of biscuits for my neglected children. Thankfully it was spring break so Abigail and Carly were
able to take care of things at home.
And just so no one calls CPS, Justin’s Mom ended up coming over to spend
the night so it wasn’t an entire 24hrs without any adult interaction.
And just some fun facts for anyone interested. Last Thursday (April 16th) the second Chick-fil-A store opened in Tacoma. We stopped by on our way to Oregon and while visiting with
someone from headquarters we learned that a good opening day for a new store
typically brings in about 30k in sales.
The week before a store had opened with 15k, which isn’t terrible, just
ok. They were estimating the
opening day for Tacoma to be about 45k.
Bellevue – one of the smallest stores they have, broke all records by
bringing in 65k.
Of course, we’ve gone back several times since the store opened. It’s always, always busy. The city has shut down a lane on a major road to help control traffic and I’m pretty sure there has been a police officer directing traffic since it opened. We met the Thomas’ there yesterday for lunch – it was their first Chick-fil-A experience ever. Always fun to be there for someone’s first :)
Of course, we’ve gone back several times since the store opened. It’s always, always busy. The city has shut down a lane on a major road to help control traffic and I’m pretty sure there has been a police officer directing traffic since it opened. We met the Thomas’ there yesterday for lunch – it was their first Chick-fil-A experience ever. Always fun to be there for someone’s first :)
Welcome to Washington Chick-fil-A!
