UT can only ‘eat mor chikin’ for lunch in the summer
AUSTIN — As the summertime rolls in and the University of Texas at Austin students roll out, many “go-to” spots on campus are making operating adjustments.
The Chick-fil-A located in the Student Activity Center is one of the many locations for students to eat with normal operating hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Throughout the school year those hours of operations cater to the students and staff because classes start at 8 a.m. Students and staff can purchase breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
But when the majority of the franchise’s consumers leave Austin for the summer, so do the 12 hours of operations. The summer hours for Chick-fil-A have been reduced to 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The summer hours produce about 20 percent of business the franchise experiences on a normal day during the school year.
“Summer is very different,” said Jared Lindenberg, the manager of Chick-fil-A.
With the hours changing, breakfast is not on the menu although summer classes, orientation, and camps are occurring during the summer mornings.
“Breakfast hours were far more manageable,” said Jon Murphy, former Chick-fil-A employee and newly Texas Alumnus. “The line was never crazy and was often pretty empty.”
With business being its slowest at breakfast time during the school year, the “new” summer hours are meant to bring in business during its peak.
Throughout the school year, the majority of business occurs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. People usually come to Chick-fil-A in between classes on campus. This pattern contributes to the franchise’s peak analytics in regards to establishing the summer hours.
“During lunch time it was very fast paced,” Murphy said.
“[During the summer] a lot of smaller waves [occur] for a lunch rush,” Lindenberg said.
With orientation only lasting Monday through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are the two slowest days of the summer. Freshmen orientation and the summer camps that are occurring on campus are contributing to the franchise’s peak time making Monday their busiest day in the summer. The student’s parents are also contributors since they do not have any dine-in dollars like their children.
“A lot of the incoming freshmen stop here and eat,” Lindenberg said. “From 11:30 a.m. to 12:45ish we get slammed after their [orientation] session [since] they have an hour to get their own lunch.”
“We’ll be completely dead and then in five seconds there’s a line,” Lindenberg said. “We’re open for the lunch rush.”
Chick-fil-A summer hours will remain in effect until Aug. 20. They will return to their normal hours of operation on Aug. 29 when the fall semester begins.
