Good day and welcome to the Daily Article podcast. Today is Friday, December the 22nd,

2020. I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's article written by Dr. Ryan Denison.

Chick-fil-A is one of the most profitable companies in their industry with an average non-mull-based franchise

generating $8.7 million in sales each year. By comparison, the typical McDonald's generates

$3.7 million per year. Overall, it is the third largest restaurant chain in the country,

and all of this, despite their famous stance of only being open six days a week.

Now, a new bill in the New York State Assembly is trying to change that by forcing Chick-fil-A, or at least the locations along their highways, to stay open every day.

As the bill authors argue, while there is nothing objectionable

about a fast food restaurant closing on a particular day of the week, service areas dedicated to

travelers is an inappropriate location for such a restaurant. Publicly owned service areas

should use their space to maximally benefit the public.

Allowing for retail space to go unused one-seventh of the week or more is a disservice

and unnecessary inconvenience to travelers who rely on these service areas.

Assemblyman Tony Simone, who is one of the bill's sponsors, put it a bit more bluntly. You know, we get

hungry when we're traveling. We may not like our brother-in-law or sister-in-law's cooking

and want to go get a snack on Christmas Eve. To find one of the restaurants closed on the

throughway is just not in the public good. Simone went on to add, The Thruways are meant to serve New York travelers first,

and I think it's ridiculous that you're able to close on Sunday

one of the busiest travel days of the week.

While many would have responded to such charges in anger,

to this point, Chick-fil-A has seemed content

to let the process play out and wait for the bill to force a conflict rather than to seek one out.

...