I love Chick-fil-a.  In my opinion, out of all the fast food eateries, not only do they have the best food, but they also have the best service.  And they rank number eight in the nation for the highest grossing fast food chains in spite of the fact they are closed on Sundays and are boycotted by (how to put this delicately) people who are more progressive and enlightened than myself. It is refreshing to see a business which actually puts faith and family ahead of the almighty dollar.  In these times, nothing is sacred—every business is open on Sundays and holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, for fear of losing that extra buck.  Imagine the money Chick-fil-a could rake in by being open on Sunday.  By my crude calculations, they could add an additional 1.2 billion dollars to their gross. For their convictions in closing on Sunday, they have my utmost respect.

But that isn’t all I love about Chick-fil-a.  Unlike some of the fast food restaurants where the servers act as if I managed to ruin their day by patronizing their establishment, Chick-fil-a employees are always exceedingly customer friendly.  I’ve been in many places where the cashier takes my order, takes my money, returns change, and puts the food on the tray without ever speaking to me or looking at me.  I’ve even had servers interrupt me while I’m in the middle of giving them my order to talk to another employee.  Many times when I say “thank you,” I don’t even get an acknowledgement as they shove the tray at me.  I won’t even go into the number of times my order has been wrong or I get stuck with the French fries which have been sitting in the warmer for the last two hours. Chick-fil-a workers, however, always ensure the order is correct and when thanked, respond with, “My pleasure.”  I somehow suspect serving me is not necessarily the most pleasurable experience of their day, but they always make me feel like it is.  Plus, if I happen to forget something, like a condiment or utensil, they cheerfully run fetch it for me, not to mention stopping by the table to ask if everything is okay or offering to refill a drink.  There are even fresh flowers on the tables.

I also think that whoever came up with the advertising concept of the cows for Chick-fil-a was an udder (pun intended) genius.  This is such a clever marketing idea, I doubt anything can top it.  I always get a chuckle out of the cows holding up the misspelled signs begging people to eat more chicken.  There is just one little problem, however.  Has anyone besides me noticed that the cows promoting Chick-fil-a are Holsteins?  And does anyone besides me realize that Holsteins are not beef cows, but dairy cows?  (Except for the poor males who are of no use to the dairy industry which get sold as babies for veal, or occasionally raised for beef).  Yes, I do understand that aged dairy cattle may be rendered for beef, but in the big scheme of beef, they don’t contribute much to the business.  This tough, aged beef probably end ups on the value menu of some of the other fast food chains (only kidding).

It’s kind of a shame that Hereford or Black Angus cattle were not chosen for the Chick-fil-a advertising.  But I’d be willing to bet that advertisement executives don’t really know a lot about cows, and when the general, unenlightened public thinks of a cow, the Holstein is the one which comes most readily to mind.  Besides, the distinct black and white markings of Holsteins make them quite photogenic.

I hope I didn’t ruin your perception of Chick-fil-a by pointing out their little advertising blunder.  On the other hand, perhaps Holsteins were deliberately chosen.  They are the cows who are alive long enough to advertise in favor of eating chicken rather than their bovine beef brethren.  Anyone join me for a Holstein hamburger?