Chick-Fil-A Is About To Make An Unpopular Change To Its Shakes

Yesterday, a notice for Chick-fil-A's upcoming menu changes titled "2021 Menu Simplifications At-A-Glance" was uploaded to the Chick-fil-A subreddit (via Reddit). It consists of one page showing what will be deleted from the menu and one page detailing the consolidated sizes to replace many of the deletions, both of which will be implemented on April 26. This went down poorly in the comments section, as such menu changes typically do.

The most vocal grievances were for Chick-fil-A's planned discontinuation of the large size milkshakes in favor of small-sized ones. The comment "No more large milkshake?? WTF" received the most boosting with others commiserating or indulging in schadenfreude for how this decision will go down with fans in general (via Reddit). "So excited to feel the rath [sic] of the customers with these changes," one person, presumably an employee or franchisee owner, wrote. "Thanks corporate!" At a glance, this decision seems like such an own goal on Chick-fil-A's part.

While the furor over reduced milkshake sizes was spurred somewhat by surprise, Chick-fil-A has been quite open about its intentions since it announced a test menu for Charlotte, North Carolina, and Arizona in January 2020.

In a press release marking the plan, they explained why they would reduce all milkshake orders to 16 ounces: "Our goal is to serve quality food as efficiently as possible." Restaurant Dive expanded on this thought, talking about how the simplified menu would reduce back-of-house clogging.

Since Chick-fil-A took a year to decide whether they would continue with the new menus, it seems likely that the results of the test markets pleased them. This, in fact, is what a few people strode into the Reddit comments to point out. Apparently, according to one user, this new menu was met with 95 percent satisfaction from both workers and consumers as it allowed the workers to make more milkshakes at a quicker pace and meant that consumers would order a separate item to compensate for the lack of milkshake (via Reddit). 

So, rather than following through on an unprompted disaster, Chick-fil-A seems secure in its move towards a more efficient fast food menu, better optimized for the increased emphasis on drive-thru dining.