Since there’s only one Chick-fil-A in all of New York City, we can’t confirm this is an actual thing. But a Queerty reader sent us this photo, presumably from one of the restaurant’s franchises, explaining that it was recalling Jim Henson’s Creature Shop puppets originally included in its Kids’ Meals.
The reason given is a possible safety issue, but since this comes days after the Jim Henson Company announced it was severing ties with the anti-gay chain, we’re a little skeptical.
We’d usually never tell anyone to step foot in a Chick-fil-A, but if you can confirm the veracity of this note we’ll send you a $25 coupon to KFC.
Not really—but do let us know.
UPDATE: It appears this is a real thing. Signs like this have appeared at Chick-fil-A locations in Maryland and Texas, and Business Insider is reporting a Florida location confirmed workers had been instructed to pull the toys: “‘Apparently they got three calls… that kids are getting their fingers stuck in a hole in the toys,’ an employee explained. ‘We are erring on the side of being extra, extra cautious.'”
Hmm, maybe if those kids weren’t chowing down on Chick-Fil-A sandwiches so often, their fingers wouldn’t be so chubby and get caught in the puppets. Just sayin’.
Daez
They mean until they get a homophobic toy company to design a new toy for them. It is quite obvious that Chick-fil-a will never change their stance, so we should be going after their suppliers. If they have no suppliers they have no product to sell.
B. Allan Ross
This is a LIE. Now Chick-fil-A is a godly fucking liar. They got dumped by Henson’s company. Period. That’s all there is to it.
EW
I can’t find anything except stories citing ONE franchise as the source. Until there is a real source, It is either one sad manager trying to hide reality or it is a hoax.
DouggSeven
It’s obvious that CFA is trying to reverse tarnish a children’s brand that didn’t want to do buisness with them due to their policies.
Mark my words…in one year’s time once all the christians/homophobes stop flocking there in droves due to their unhealthy menu and the reputation is so trashed by the media – store closures will be a common occurrence. In a recession, you DO NOT want to alienate a single customer – and that is exactly what they’re doing. Comedians have already begun to make CFA jokes on stage so the word of mouth is spreading…like wildfire.
B. Allan Ross
@EW: Don’t miss the story update. Also, don’t be so quick to dismiss a franchisee’s actions. They ARE still CFA, even if it is only one location. It is a pitiful sign by itself or by the thousands, because it is a total LIE by people being RELIGIOUS pricks, one store at a time, one customer at a time. BOYCOTT CFA!
I won't grow up
Is it true that they are secretly in ca-hoots with Perdue to inject a special ingredient into those f**king waffle fries that turns gay people straight. And if that is true wouldn’t the reverse also be true…??? Just asking……In any case, boycot the bastards.
STEVE
GOOD JOB, DAN – YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT ON THE SIGN “…. SOME OF THE LITTLE BOYS WERE PUSHING THEIR FINGERS IN AND OUT OF THE HOLES OF THE MUPPET TOYS…”
Tom
They used to give out cassette tapes from Focus
On The Family in their kids meals, maybe they should just to firmly state their position
dennis
why are they making such a big deal of this???
Boycott chickfillay—plain and simple
Jorval
Boycott away…
Another thing that can be done is to identify chick-fil-a’s competition, find out their stance on marriage equality and begin a grassroots advertising campaign for their competition.
Fast food companies spend millions on advertising….give chick-fil-a’s competition free word of mouth grassroots advertising. Chick-fil-a probably doesn’t give a rat’s behind about a boycott by the LGBT community, but free advertising for their competition – that is something they’re not gonna like very much.
As for who the competition is – There are no chick-fil-a’s anywhere near here, and I’ve never eaten at one. Would KFC or Popeyes be considered their competition?
Orrin
@EW:
I work at a Chick Fil A in a different location in TX… We did not put the signs up as the ones above, but we were telling the customers the same basic thing when they found no toy in their kids meals (we then offered them ice cream instead).
We got word from our operator that they were recalled, where HE got that information I am not sure. I will ask him tomorrow out of curiosity.
So, no signs at our location, but we were telling them the same thing.
Additionally it should be pointed out that Henson Co. announced the severing from Chick Fil A, a day AFTER this alleged voluntary recall happened, not before. Also, I am curious, after Henson reported their severing of ties, did he also demand that they take the toys out of their bags? I am frankly confused as to why they would take them out of the bags because of the severing of ties… Was it in a contract or something? If so, why is no one coming out with information on that… To me the hole in the whole Chick Fil A is lying theory is that we don’t know why they would remove it in the first place, only to lie about the reasons they did so. Any insight on this?
Michael
Henson/Disney needs to sue them for defamation. You gotta love how “Christians” will break 20% of the most severe commandments known to man in order to justify their homophobia. What a load of crap.
B
Re No. 11 · Orrin wrote, “Additionally it should be pointed out that Henson Co. announced the severing from Chick Fil A, a day AFTER this alleged voluntary recall happened, not before.”
Unfortunately that doesn’t mean much – as a courtesy, Chick-Fil-A could have received a notice of Henson Co.’s intentions in advance of a public announcement.
Orrin
@B:
You are right there, I agree. I am not saying that makes Chick Fil A innocent by any means, the only reason I say that is because I have seen on this website, along with another source or two claiming ~
“The reason given is a possible safety issue, but since this comes days AFTER [emphasis added] the Jim Henson Company announced it was severing ties with the anti-gay chain, we’re a little skeptical.”
That is a small bit of incorrect information that I only wanted to point out to keep us all honest about the situation. It doesn’t at all remedy the facts of Chick Fil A’s anti gay antics recently. I do work at a chick fil a, have been doing so for about 6 months ago. I am ashamed of the company I work for and am looking around for a reason NOT to quit and find a different job. I am finishing up a bachelors degree so regardless of my actions in the next month or so, I will be moving on to a more rewarding career in a year or so.
I will say two things for this community. I am personally am on your side on this issue. Civil rights is a huge issue for me, I take it seriously. I am a Christian, but I am a univeralist, “new” theologian, liberal minded theist, anything you can name that would make me a non-fundamentalist believer. I can understand why any of you would hold me in contempt for working for this company, but at the time of employment I didn’t know to the full extent their stance on the issue (that’s 1) and 2, I have a friend or two that got me into the position and after meeting with the owner of this particular franchise I am satisfied with their desire to serve the community.
That being said I want to add that all the individual stores are different, as they are owned by different operators. With in the company there is indeed a bit of a glass ceiling for non-believing workers who wish to become operators and if the person is openly gay, they may as well forget becoming more than a general manager of a small time store (if they are lucky). The particular store I work for, and the owner of that store, is an exceptionally tolerant and positive business influence for the west Texas area it is in. I could list countless organization (faith based and non-faith based) that have been able to raise money via fundraising (aka ‘Spirit’ nights) through this store, along with countless dollars worth of coupons/free meal cards given to organizations looking for a way to raise money through local businesses. The particular owner will hire anyone willing to work, and pretty much doesn’t care what lifestyle they live as long as the can adhere the most basic rules for maintaining appearances (tattoos covered, abnormal piercings outs during work, etc). Not only that the owner is so good to his employees that I have never heard an employee complain about being mistreated by the owner or upper management. He even bought out a suite for a Ranger’s baseball game for all 40+ of his employees to enjoy (unlimited food and all!). The only reason I didn’t instantly put in my two weeks after hearing of this fiasco is because of the owner of this Chick Fil A I work at.
Don’t get me wrong, I am having some serious qualms about where I work now, but the particular people I work for DIRECTLY are people I would defend anywhere. As for corporate , I could care less. That being said, let me offer three ways you could screw corporate out dollars rather than individual stores/owners (if you wanted to).
1.) Take advantage of coupons best you can. Look online or in the papers, if you ever see coupons that allow you a free meal or entree without a purchase, go there and take advantage of it. That is a corporate expense (9/10 times) not a Chick Fil A one.
2.) Almost every store does what is called “Family Night”. The basic offer is that if you go IN to the store and get at least 1 combo meal you can get up to 4 kids meals for free. Every store is different as to how they enforce it, but my particular store basically will give you 4 kids meals after you buy one entree no questions asked. Just say you have 4 kids in the play ground or whatever and you want to feed em (for the drinks get lemonades, and fore the sides for the kids meals get fruit cupts because that is the most expensive stuff they make and least profitable). If you don’t want to lie, just say you want one meal with 4 kids meals for free and if they say you need to have kids present just walk ou t or whatever you want to do. Generally family night is on Tuesday, from 5PM to 8PM. ANy kid meals recieved free on those days is a corporate expense 🙂
3.) lastly, once a year on cow appreciation day if you come dressed as a cow you get a free meal. Get all your friends involved with different eleborate (but cheap) costumes go in for breakfast, lunch, dinner as many times as you can and try to get free meals without them noticing that you’ve already been in. A lot of areas have more than one chick fil a, so travel around and get as much free food as possible (get fruit and lemonade to suck most money out of it).. Do this as much as possible on that day with as many people as you can get to do it. You can look at it as a big protest that actually sucks profit straight from corporate. Ifi you don’t want to eat all that food, look for people that are out there that could use the food. ALmost are areas have homeless shelters, or known homeless “hang outs”. That food can go a LONG way to feed some hungry people, so might as well put your exploits to good use 🙂
Anyway, that’s my two cents, I hope that provided a balanced assessment of a more personal situaton with in chick fil a. Instead of flat out boycotting, you could suck some money from corporate, along with get some free food (or feed some hungrry folks on corporate’s dime). It’s up to you what you do with the information.
Ruhlmann
@Orrin: I just love the idea that we’ve got a mole in that place. That’s brilliant strategy Orrin. The idea of feeding a few homeless people on CFA’s dime is beautiful. Good luck to you.
Hyhybt
@Orrin: People of course shouldn’t hold it against you for working there; jobs are hard to come by, and from all I’ve heard they’re in many ways better for employees than others in the same type of business. (Having one day you *know* you will be off every week, and during the weekend, no less, by itself is worth a lot even if you have no interest in church!)
@Jorval: KFC and Popeye’s are competition in a general sense, though Chick-fil-A specializes in sandwiches and nuggets while KFC and Popeye’s are best known for standard, bone-including pieces of fried chicken. KFC *used* to have some great sandwiches, but they seem to have dropped them from the menu. Their Original Recipe bites are, other than a different seasoning layer, very similar to CFA’s nuggets, and their potato wedges are much better than waffle fries…. *except* that, from my experience, potato wedges fairly often turn out to be stale, while I’ve never had an order of waffle fries that wasn’t nice and fresh.
Aside from the taste, that’s one reason I’m so disappointed in Chick-fil-A over this anti-gay thing. No matter what location I go to, the people are *always* both friendly and efficient, the food *always* fresh and tasty without taking forever, and the contents of my bag *always* exactly what I ordered. That’s not an “always” that’s really a usually, either; that’s EVERY SINGLE TIME in over a thousand visits. I don’t know how they do that, and having worked 14 years in fast food, I wouldn’t believe it possible, but there it is. OK, I admit, I have on rare occasions found ice in my drink when I asked for it without, but other than that.
angel_kiss141
Interesting
Steve
This is not an anti gay statement it is a religious stand that marriage is between a man and a woman. As with many states civil unions for legal recognition of partner as next of kin are not opposed. Why is it when anyone expresses a nonliberal opinion they are discriminating but no matter how outrageous the statement any pro gay statement is progressive and politically correct.
Our civil union family will be going an extra 3 miles to visit Chic-Fil_a .
Enough of this my way is the only way B.S.
Either you tolerate everyone’s position and listen to everyone or you dictate the only acceptable position is yours.
Gena
Actually, it is was on the 19th that Chick-fil-a did the recall. Henson’s company didn’t make their dissolution statement until the 20th/21st.
So the recall, technically came first.
So yes, I think it is purely coincidental.
Hyhybt
@Gena: It is possible that it’s a coincidence. It’s possible that CFA was told of the Henson company’s decision in advance, and made an excuse to pull the toys so as to stop GLAAD from getting any more money. And it’s possible that the Henson announcement was to ensure they got better publicity than they would have in simply having their toys removed from sale. No way to know unless someone talks.