Why You May Hear Chick-Fil-A Workers Yell 'Stored' At Each Other

Even in the blazing summer heat or freezing cold of winter, Chick-fil-A employees will hustle their way up and down the drive-thru lanes to ensure each customer order is taken more quickly. The chain is so popular that it sometimes needs two lanes to efficiently roll people through the line. When the staff takes your order outside your car window during these high-traffic rushes, the kitchen receives more orders, increasing sales per hour.

Fast food restaurants have been doing this for years as a way to streamline the whole ordering process. While waiting in line, you might've heard Chick-fil-A workers call out to one another in an effort to keep things straight, yelling, "Stored!" Not to worry. There's no cause for alarm, even if it does give you a good jump scare the first time you hear it. The iPad-wielding staff member who you requested a frosty lemonade from, along with a bag brimming with piping hot waffle fries, was simply announcing that your order was officially delivered to the food prep line.

Let's say the car behind you had a quicker purchase than you. As a Reddit user explained, the employee taking their order will wait for the signal from the person taking your order after you've finished up. Once you're good to go, your order-taker may say "stored," followed up with an echo from the employee behind you.

Because drive-thru lines at Chick-fil-A get flooded with customers, the company had to experiment with various methods for boosting the speed of orders, even incorporating FaceTime into the customer experience. Many may have taken one look at a jam-packed car queue and headed home to make their own copycat Chick-fil-A recipes. But for those who are dedicated to the wait, workers use specialized restaurant software on their iPads to keep track of orders. It has become an essential tool.

One Redditor stated that a "hold" button can be used by workers if the order of the car in front of them is taking a while. "If one order-taker is further down the line and finishing orders, they press a 'hold' button, this keeps the order stored in the iPad but doesn't send it to the kitchen yet." In case the sequence does get messed up, there is a handy button to switch orders around.

Perhaps such improvements in efficiency have helped boost the Georgia-based restaurant's bottom line in recent years. In 2022, Chick-fil-A's reported annual revenue per location was a whopping 53% higher than it had been just five years earlier. People are clearly pleased with its service, as the chicken joint has won seven customer satisfaction awards in a row and is still going strong.