Dan Cathy doesn’t just want to feed you chicken, he also wants to feed your soul.
The food items “that we’re selling back there, they are used by the body to rebuild muscle tissue because our bodies are constantly breaking down muscle tissue,” the president of Chick-fil-A said earlier this week to a group of employees at a new store in Des Peres. “Emotionally, it’s the same way, too. Emotionally, people are heavy with the friction of life. They have got to be rebuilt of their emotions.”
Chick-fil-A employees can help, he said, by refreshing their beverages and providing them ‘second-mile service” — a reference to the Bible in which Jesus tells his followers that if they are forced to go one mile, they should go a second mile.
It was not the typical sort of corporate-speak you would expect to hear from the leader of a major fast-food chain, with 1,540 stores and $3.6 billion in sales last year. Chick-fil-A is planning to open 90 stores this year, including four in the St. Louis region.