A new and improved Chick-fil-A was opened to students with added services including new menu items, a new look and a new way for food to be ordered. 

While the new services have received praise from students, a question of ‘why now?’ can be asked. 

Within the contract held by Chick-fil-A and Eastern, the restaurant must be refurbished every five to seven years, said Chris Coffey, the associate director for housing and dining for Panther dining.  

The process began about 18 months ago when corporate Chick-fil-A employees came to Eastern to look at the space and get an idea for the revamp.  

On May 6, Eastern started the demolition, which took about two weeks, Coffey said. The rest of the time was for reconstruction, which was finished around Aug. 27.  

The week between completion and reopening was spent training the team members.  

Coffey said Chick-fil-A corporate sent down seven of their members to come and train the new team members.  

He said the Chick-fil-A has been straying away from the express line it used to have, which offers less items than the typical Chick-fil-A. 

At 10:30 a.m. on opening day, around 40 people waited to try out the Chick-fil-A they had been eagerly anticipating.  

The average wait time for customers on the first day was around eight to 10 minutes while some waited around 25 minutes, but Hudson and Coffey said the wait time will be decreased. Currently, the wait times are around four minutes.  

Mark Hudson, the executive director for university housing and dining services, said there were over 800 transactions on the first day, with each transaction averaging $12.  

“There was no other one day that was bigger than that one day,” Hudson said. “And in fact, the first three days, each one of them was bigger than our biggest day previously.” 

From their opening day, Sept. 3 through Sept. 7, there were nearly 3,000 transactions. 

While its still early in the launch of the refurbished Chick-fil-A to have expectations or things to work on, Hudson said he and Coffey will look deeper at things to improve upon in October or November.  

When it was first brought into the Martin Luther King Jr., University Union food court, while also being the first Chick-fil-A on a college campus in Illinois, Hudson said, it was agreed upon that it would be a part of Eastern’s franchise.  

“So we are literally the owners of it,” Hudson said. 

There are still rules and regulations that must be followed that were set by corporate Chick-fil-A officials, including customers having their orders in their hands within four minutes of them placing the order.  

Another regulation that Eastern must follow is for the employees to say, “my pleasure” instead of “thank you.” 

 According to Nation’s Restaurant News, Chick-fil-A made $21.58 billion in sales in 2023, an increase of 14.7% from 2022. 

Alongside the Chik-fil-A in the University Union, Mattoon will also have a Chik-fil-A at 1320 Fort Worth Way.

Chick-fil-A has historically been in hot water for past company views, starting since 2012 when former CEO Dan T. Cathy made comments online opposing same-sex marriage. With this, in 2010 Chick-fil-A gave $8 million to the WinShape Foundation, a religious foundation that previously funded anti same-sex marriage groups.

As of 2019, Chick-fil-A said it had stopped donating to charities with anti-LGBT views, according to Bisnow.

Cam’ron Hardy can be reached at 581-2812 or cahardy@eiu.edu.