Why Chick-fil-A Makes More Per Location Than McDonald’s

The Business Story: Chick-fil-A vs. McDonald’s

On paper, McDonald’s should crush Chick-fil-A.

They’re open 7 days a week. They have far more locations. They’ve been around longer.

And yet, Chick-fil-A makes more per location than McDonald’s.

How?

It’s not volume. It’s experience.

Chick-fil-A built its brand on consistency, service, and values. Customers don’t just remember the food. They remember being greeted with a smile, the “my pleasure” service, the sense that quality mattered.

That’s why people are willing to wait in long drive-thru lines, pay slightly higher prices, and even accept that the chain is closed on Sundays.

Chick-fil-A’s edge isn’t more speed or more stores. It’s loyalty created by trust and experience.

The Tip: Quality and Values Drive Profit

There’s a lesson here for anyone building a business or a personal brand:

👉 The shortcut doesn’t scale.

Speed and volume might get you quick wins, but they rarely build trust.

Quality, consistency, and values are what turn buyers into loyalists.

• Quality makes people confident they’ll get value.

• Consistency keeps them coming back.

• Values make them believe they’re part of something bigger.

That’s the trifecta behind Chick-fil-A’s per-location dominance. And it’s the same trifecta behind brands, creators, and founders who rise above the noise.

When you focus on trust over tricks, you create profit that lasts.

The Personal Story: A Client Win

One of my clients came in frustrated. They had tried to drive growth by being faster and cheaper than competitors, but it left them feeling stuck. They were burning energy chasing quick deals and watching relationships fizzle out.

We pivoted their approach. Instead of speed and pricing, we built their content and outreach around experience, trust, and values.

We told stories that revealed their character. We highlighted the kind of clients they wanted to serve, not just the services they offered. We positioned them as a leader worth listening to - not another vendor racing to the bottom.

Within weeks, the tone of their inbox changed.

They weren’t just getting replies like “What’s your price?” They were getting conversations that started with, “I love how you see this problem…can we talk?”

And those conversations turned into high-quality leads. Not because they pushed harder, but because they built trust.

That’s the Chick-fil-A effect.

Bringing It Home

Chick-fil-A proves that the best brands don’t win by being the fastest or the cheapest.

They win by being the most trusted.

And when you apply that same principle to your content and outreach, everything shifts. Your brand stops feeling like a commodity and starts becoming a category of one.

That’s exactly what I help founders and executives build through my Core Authority package:

✔ Personal brand crafted with the Creative Catalyst Method
✔ 4 high-quality posts a week written for you on LinkedIn
✔ Done-for-you outreach system that sparks real conversations

Clients on this package are seeing 5–15 leads per month, not because they’re louder, but because they’re trusted.

If you want your brand to feel more Chick-fil-A than McDonald’s, reply with “Authority” and let’s talk.