Alaska and Vermont
What are the only two states without a Chick-fil-A?
I write a lot about Chick-fil-A. It's one of the most successful privately held American companies -- and almost certainly the most successful family-owned quick service restaurant chain.
In fact, it's so ubiquitous now that it’s easy to forget the chain didn’t expand beyond the South until decades into its history.
But expand it has, with 3,000 restaurants across the United States. In fact, I was surprised recently to realize that Chick-fil-A now has restaurants in every U.S. state except two: Vermont and Alaska.
Why can’t people “eat mor chikin” in the Green Mountain State or in the state that calls itself the Last Frontier?
I think there’s very likely a hidden reason that most people wouldn’t think of at first—one that might go a long way toward explaining why Chick-fil-A is so successful to begin with.
Sheer number of people
To begin with, not a lot of people live in either Alaska or Vermont compared with other states. In fact, they’re ranked 48th and 49th in terms of population, with only about 733,000 and 648,000 people respectively.
But if that were the reason, how did the number 50 state, Wyoming, get two Chick-fil-A restaurants?
For that matter, North Dakota and South Dakota each have slightly larger populations — both under one million — but North Dakota has five Chick-fil-A locations, and South Dakota has four.
So, let’s put “total population” aside for a moment and see if we can find something else.
Population density
The next obvious answer might have to do with population density and city size: Vermont especially simply doesn’t have any big cities.
Its largest municipality, Burlington, had just 44,743 people as of the 2020 census.
But other quick service restaurant chains seem to make a go of it there.
By my count using Google Maps, the Burlington area boasts at least four McDonald’s, two Burger Kings, four Starbucks, and — this being New England, after all — 13 Dunkin’ locations.
Moreover, population density or lack thereof doesn’t explain why Chick-fil-A hasn’t moved into Alaska, in that almost 40 percent of the state’s population — about 250,000 people — live in Anchorage.
That means Alaska’s biggest city is roughly the same size as a place like the Lubbock, Texas, area, which supports 11 Chick-fil-A restaurants.
So, let’s look for another clue — one that might highlight why Chick-fil-A is, for lack of a better word, kind of special.
Overseas plans
We have one other key piece of data to throw into the mix. It has to do with Chick-fil-A’s international expansion plans.
Yes, Chick-fil-A has made a bit of a big deal about its plans to expand into the United Kingdom and Singapore. But I’ve been struck since the start that each of those announcements involves a very small number of locations.
The big plans call for just five restaurants across the entire United Kingdom (population almost 70 million, with 9.7 million in London alone), and a single, solitary restaurant planned for Singapore, which is a city-state with a population of six million.
These are English-speaking places where lots of people live, and with pockets of very high population density. Moreover, other chicken restaurants have thrived.
So it seems like there has to be another factor.
Why do you want to own a Chick-fil-A?
All of this brings us to what I think might be the hidden reason why Alaska and Vermont have wound up last on the expansion list for Chick-fil-A, and why the company’s overseas expansion plans seem poised to proceed at an almost painfully deliberate pace:
Maybe it’s not that there aren’t enough potential customers in those locations.
Instead, maybe it’s that Chick-fil-A hasn’t been convinced it’s able to recruit potential franchisees who both fit its highly specific partnership criteria and are willing to live and work in those locations.
Chick-fil-A gets a massive number of initial franchise applications, but rejects almost all of them.
And my strong suspicion is that this is the real bottleneck: finding people who check all of the many boxes on the company’s franchisee criteria.
By the way, I asked Chick-fil-A for comment on my theory here, but I didn’t hear back. In past interviews, however, we’ve seen just how selective the company is, and the strong weight it puts on how potential franchisees answer a specific question asked many times during the lengthy interviewing process.
Namely: Why do you want to own and operate a Chick-fil-A franchise restaurant?
It tells me that Chick-fil-A has developed a very specific idea of how a potential successful franchisee will answer that question, along with all the other skills and accomplishments they need to bring to the role.
As a counter-exmaple, I would be horrible at running a Chick-fil-A. Absolutely terrible, no matter how much you paid me.
While many companies will say that their people are their most important asset, at least when it comes to potential franchisees Chick-fil-A’s model really seems to depend on that being true.
And, they seem to stay focused on that even if it means slower growth or giving up some opportunities in the short term for lack of the right people.
It’s a tradeoff: temporarily forgo potential success in a few areas in order to absolutely kill it everywhere else. Frankly, it’s a deal I think a lot of people would take in a New York minute.
Or maybe a Vermont minute.
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Thanks for reading. Photo by Brad (LNU) on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
NYS Thruway service areas (rest stops) have gone through renovations and Chik Fil A is now one of the restaurants at the rest areas. Their policy of not being open on Sundays, because of the Christian values of the founder, has caused controversy since Sundays are heavily traveled days on that the primary north south highway in NY. There are parts of the state where the rest stops are the only places to fuel up and get food near the highway. I wonder if part of the criteria for owning one a CFA franchise is religious, Christian to be specific.
I haven't been to a Chik Fil A in over 7 years. None around here. I don't do fast food but 5-6 times a year. But it is way better than any other chicken place.